Out-of-bounds read in Linux kernel mwifiex wireless driver
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 6 without a fix
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
The Linux kernel mwifiex wireless driver is affected from version 3.0 until the fixed versions listed in the solution. The function mwifiex_search_oui_in_ie reads a pairwise cipher count from a probe response RSN or WPA element and walks that many OUIs without checking the element length, causing an out-of-bounds read. A malicious access point whose probe response is processed during scan result parsing can trigger it.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-30
Description from the CNA
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mwifiex: bound the pairwise-cipher OUI walk to the IE length mwifiex_search_oui_in_ie() reads a pairwise-cipher (PTK) count from a beacon/probe-response RSN or WPA information element and then walks that many 4-byte OUIs, comparing each with memcmp(). The count comes straight from the (attacker-supplied) IE and is never checked against the element's own length, and the callers admit the element on element_id alone (has_ieee_hdr() / has_vendor_hdr(), no length check). A crafted RSN/WPA IE with a large pairwise count therefore makes the walk read up to 255 * 4 bytes past the element -- an out-of-bounds read of the kmemdup()'d beacon buffer, reachable from any AP whose beacon/probe response is processed during scan-result parsing. Pass the number of IE bytes available at the OUI list and bound the walk to the element. Keep the length signed and reject a negative value before any unsigned arithmetic, so a small or zero IE length cannot underflow to a large size_t and defeat the bound. Found by 0sec automated security-research tooling (https://0sec.ai).
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
Fixed Linux kernel versions are 5.10.271, 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158, 6.12.112, 6.18.54, 7.2.8 and 7.3. Red Hat lists no available fix for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9 and 10 and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 and 5.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-30
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.10.271, 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158, 6.12.112, 6.18.54, 7.2.8, 7.3
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Timeline
- 2026-10-06 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-98186
- 2026-10-06 Alias added: GHSA-vmvq-5qrr-gvg2
- 2026-10-09 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-09 CVSS score added · Red Hat
- 2026-10-19 Fix available: Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-10-30 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-11-01 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77e642af7f2f6029e12a35c847c56cbd0466e799
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/982b8fcdbb28f63bbbf02f0822c0bbda12ec27ed
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/58767b41f87244eebaa5a475b9d276c83b89b933
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2402c9e2644b7e10c7aaaf87bf12743d7e363559
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/54a9cc5bd70b0d77a5069d4c46998c679a10c857
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8bbef2b1ebfbadc0b9c37bbbf9c9e26fe2e41960
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46cda9d42f0d6ec3057d878ddb1f38c0ab9f51df
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e667aee1c192d67d27c803007bfa9c6e0873e959
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Sources
- CVE-2026-98186 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-98186 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-vmvq-5qrr-gvg2 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-98186 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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