CVE-2026-98186
wifi: mwifiex: bound the pairwise-cipher OUI walk to the IE length
Description
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).
INFO
Published Date :
Oct. 6, 2026, 9:18 a.m.
Last Modified :
Oct. 19, 2026, 10:18 a.m.
Remotely Exploit :
No
Source :
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Solution
- Update the Linux kernel to a patched version.
- Verify the integrity of kernel modules.
- Reboot the system after updates.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2026-98186.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-98186 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-98186
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
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The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2026-98186 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2026-98186 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
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CVE Modified by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Oct. 19, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Affected Affected value modified. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/98xxx/CVE-2026-98186.json">CVE-2026-98186</a> -
New CVE Received by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Oct. 06, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Description 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). Added Affected New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/98xxx/CVE-2026-98186.json">CVE-2026-98186</a> Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2402c9e2644b7e10c7aaaf87bf12743d7e363559 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46cda9d42f0d6ec3057d878ddb1f38c0ab9f51df Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/54a9cc5bd70b0d77a5069d4c46998c679a10c857 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/58767b41f87244eebaa5a475b9d276c83b89b933 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77e642af7f2f6029e12a35c847c56cbd0466e799 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8bbef2b1ebfbadc0b9c37bbbf9c9e26fe2e41960 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/982b8fcdbb28f63bbbf02f0822c0bbda12ec27ed Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e667aee1c192d67d27c803007bfa9c6e0873e959