[PATCH v4 5/5] staging: rtl8723bs: fix negative length in WEP decryption

Delene Tchio Romuald
2026-04-15T18:56:01Z

In rtw_wep_decrypt(), the payload length is computed as:

length = frame->len - prxattrib->hdrlen - prxattrib->iv_len;

All operands are unsigned. If the frame is shorter than the sum of
the header length and the IV length, this subtraction wraps around
and length becomes a huge unsigned value. That value is then used
to drive an arc4_crypt() call that reads and writes past the end
of the receive buffer.

An attacker within WiFi radio range can exploit this by sending a
crafted short WEP-encrypted frame. No authentication is required.

Validate that the frame is large enough to contain a WEP payload
before computing length.

Found by reviewing length arithmetic in the WEP decrypt path.
Not tested on hardware.

Fixes: 554c0a3abf216 ("staging: Add rtl8723bs sdio wifi driver")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Luka Gejak <luka.gejak@linux.dev>
Signed-off-by: Delene Tchio Romuald <delenetchior1@gmail.com>
---
v4: add Fixes: tag and Cc: stable (Dan Carpenter); carry Luka Gejak's
Reviewed-by.
v3: rebased on staging-next; sent as numbered series with proper
Cc from get_maintainer.pl.
v2: rebased on staging-next (v1 was based on v7.0-rc6 and did not
apply).

drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_security.c | 6 ++++++
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_security.c b/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_security.c
index a00504ff29109..f3bc2240749a4 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_security.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_security.c
@@ -113,6 +113,12 @@ void rtw_wep_decrypt(struct adapter *padapter, u8 *precvframe)
memcpy(&wepkey[0], iv, 3);
/* memcpy(&wepkey[3], &psecuritypriv->dot11DefKey[psecuritypriv->dot11PrivacyKeyIndex].skey[0], keylength); */
memcpy(&wepkey[3], &psecuritypriv->dot11DefKey[keyindex].skey[0], keylength);
+
+ /* Ensure the frame is long enough for WEP decryption */
+ if (((union recv_frame *)precvframe)->u.hdr.len <=
+ prxattrib->hdrlen + prxattrib->iv_len)
+ return;
+
length = ((union recv_frame *)precvframe)->u.hdr.len - prxattrib->hdrlen - prxattrib->iv_len;

payload = pframe + prxattrib->iv_len + prxattrib->hdrlen;
--
2.43.0