[PATCH v2 0/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix multiple OOB reads in IE and frame parsing

[PATCH v2 0/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix multiple OOB reads in IE and frame parsing

[Muhammad Bilal]

v2 of the series fixing out-of-bounds read and buffer overflow bugs in
the rtl8723bs staging driver where length or offset fields from
untrusted wireless frames are used without validating that enough
bytes remain in the buffer.

Changes since v1:

 - Dropped patch 1/5 ("fix OOB read in rtw_get_wps_ie()") - did not
   apply.
 - Dropped patch 5/5 ("fix skb->len underflow in monitor TX path").

Muhammad Bilal (3):
  staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read / stack overflow in
    rtw_get_wps_attr()
  staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read in rtw_action_frame_parse()
  staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()

 drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c | 7 +++++++
 drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_mlme.c      | 3 +++
 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+)

-- 
2.55.0

[PATCH v2 1/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read / stack overflow in rtw_get_wps_attr()

[Muhammad Bilal]

rtw_get_wps_attr() walks WPS attributes inside a WPS IE taken from
a wireless management frame. For each candidate attribute it only
checks that the fixed 4-byte attribute header (2-byte ID + 2-byte
length) fits inside the IE:

	if (attr_ptr + 4 > wps_ie + wps_ielen)
		break;
	u16 attr_id = get_unaligned_be16(attr_ptr);
	u16 attr_data_len = get_unaligned_be16(attr_ptr + 2);
	u16 attr_len = attr_data_len + 4;

attr_data_len (and therefore attr_len) is read directly from the
wire and is never checked against the remaining bytes in the IE
before being used as the size of:

	memcpy(buf_attr, attr_ptr, attr_len);

Since attr_len is fully attacker controlled (0 to 65535+4), this is
both a heap OOB read of wps_ie, and, more seriously, a stack buffer
overflow at several call sites where buf_attr is a single-byte
stack variable, e.g. rtw_get_wps_attr_content()'s callers passing
WPS_ATTR_SELECTED_REGISTRAR into a stack "u8 sr"/"u8
selected_registrar" (drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/os_dep/ioctl_cfg80211.c,
drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_mlme_ext.c). A crafted WPS IE in a
beacon or probe response processed during scanning can therefore
smash the stack of the parsing thread.

rtw_get_wps_attr_content() itself has no independent length check
and simply trusts the attr_len it gets back from rtw_get_wps_attr(),
so fixing the bound here also fixes that caller.

The "attr_ptr + 4 > wps_ie + wps_ielen" header check above was added
by commit 1463ca3ec6601 ("staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB reads in
rtw_get_sec_ie(), rtw_get_wapi_ie(), and rtw_get_wps_attr()"), which
bounded the fixed header but never extended the check to cover the
variable-length attribute data that follows it. Add that missing
check before attr_len is used as a memcpy() length or accepted as a
match.

Fixes: 554c0a3abf216 ("staging: Add rtl8723bs sdio wifi driver")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Muhammad Bilal <meatuni001@gmail.com>
---
 drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c | 4 ++++
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c b/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c
index 2fb5863dbeef..be374d222c55 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c
@@ -733,6 +733,10 @@ u8 *rtw_get_wps_attr(u8 *wps_ie, uint wps_ielen, u16 target_attr_id, u8 *buf_att
 		u16 attr_data_len = get_unaligned_be16(attr_ptr + 2);
 		u16 attr_len = attr_data_len + 4;
 
+		/* Reject attributes whose claimed length runs past the IE */
+		if (attr_ptr + attr_len > wps_ie + wps_ielen)
+			break;
+
 		if (attr_id == target_attr_id) {
 			target_attr_ptr = attr_ptr;
 
-- 
2.55.0

[PATCH v2 2/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read in rtw_action_frame_parse()

[Muhammad Bilal]

rtw_action_frame_parse() takes a frame_len parameter but never
actually checks it before indexing into the frame body:

	const u8 *frame_body = frame + sizeof(struct ieee80211_hdr_3addr);
	...
	c = frame_body[0];
	...
	a = frame_body[1];

frame_body already points 24 bytes (sizeof(struct
ieee80211_hdr_3addr)) into frame, so reading frame_body[0] and
frame_body[1] requires frame_len >= 26. A management action frame
shorter than that (e.g. exactly 24 bytes, the minimum a malicious
peer can send) causes a 1-2 byte out-of-bounds read.

This is reachable from rtw_cfg80211_monitor_if_xmit_entry() and
cfg80211_rtw_mgmt_tx() in ioctl_cfg80211.c, both of which pass
attacker/user-influenced frame buffers and lengths straight through.

Add the missing length check before frame_body is dereferenced.

Fixes: 554c0a3abf216 ("staging: Add rtl8723bs sdio wifi driver")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Muhammad Bilal <meatuni001@gmail.com>
---
 drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c b/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c
index be374d222c55..e02b54131633 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c
@@ -1145,6 +1145,9 @@ int rtw_action_frame_parse(const u8 *frame, u32 frame_len, u8 *category, u8 *act
 	u8 c;
 	u8 a = ACT_PUBLIC_MAX;
 
+	if (frame_len < sizeof(struct ieee80211_hdr_3addr) + 2)
+		return false;
+
 	fc = le16_to_cpu(((struct ieee80211_hdr_3addr *)frame)->frame_control);
 
 	if ((fc & (IEEE80211_FCTL_FTYPE | IEEE80211_FCTL_STYPE)) !=
-- 
2.55.0

[PATCH v2 3/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()

[Muhammad Bilal]

rtw_restruct_wmm_ie() scans in_ie for a WMM IE with:

	while (i < in_len) {
		...
		if (i + 5 < in_len && in_ie[i] == 0xDD && ...) {
			...
			break;
		}
		i += (in_ie[i + 1] + 2); /* to the next IE element */
	}

When the "i + 5 < in_len" match check fails simply because i is
within 5 bytes of the end of the buffer (i.e. no WMM IE was found
near the tail of in_ie), execution falls through to
"i += (in_ie[i + 1] + 2)", which reads in_ie[i + 1]. If i == in_len
- 1 at that point, this is a 1-byte out-of-bounds read of an
attacker-influenced IE buffer built from association/scan data.

Commit a75281626fc8f ("staging: rtl8723bs: fix potential
out-of-bounds read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie") added the "i + 5 <
in_len" guard to the match condition itself, but did not add an
equivalent guard before the fallthrough advance, so the same class
of OOB read remained reachable through the non-matching path.

Add an explicit bounds check before advancing to the next IE.

Fixes: 554c0a3abf216 ("staging: Add rtl8723bs sdio wifi driver")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Muhammad Bilal <meatuni001@gmail.com>
---
 drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_mlme.c | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_mlme.c b/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_mlme.c
index 1196ec011455..7bdc5fe6dc8a 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_mlme.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_mlme.c
@@ -1980,6 +1980,9 @@ int rtw_restruct_wmm_ie(struct adapter *adapter, u8 *in_ie, u8 *out_ie, uint in_
 			break;
 		}
 
+		if (i + 1 >= in_len)
+			break;
+
 		i += (in_ie[i + 1] + 2); /*  to the next IE element */
 	}
 
-- 
2.55.0

Re: [PATCH v2 0/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix multiple OOB reads in IE and frame parsing

[Muhammad Bilal]

ping.

On Tue, Jul 28, 2026 at 5:55 PM Muhammad Bilal <meatuni001@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> v2 of the series fixing out-of-bounds read and buffer overflow bugs in
> the rtl8723bs staging driver where length or offset fields from
> untrusted wireless frames are used without validating that enough
> bytes remain in the buffer.
>
> Changes since v1:
>
>  - Dropped patch 1/5 ("fix OOB read in rtw_get_wps_ie()") - did not
>    apply.
>  - Dropped patch 5/5 ("fix skb->len underflow in monitor TX path").
>
> Muhammad Bilal (3):
>   staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read / stack overflow in
>     rtw_get_wps_attr()
>   staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read in rtw_action_frame_parse()
>   staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()
>
>  drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_ieee80211.c | 7 +++++++
>  drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core/rtw_mlme.c      | 3 +++
>  2 files changed, 10 insertions(+)
>
> --
> 2.55.0
>

Re: [PATCH v2 0/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix multiple OOB reads in IE and frame parsing

[Greg KH]

On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 04:10:36AM +0500, Muhammad Bilal wrote:
> ping.

Context-less pings are not really helpful :(

Re: [PATCH v2 0/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix multiple OOB reads in IE and frame parsing

[Muhammad Bilal]

Apologies for the context-less ping, that was on me.

For reference, this is the v2 series (sent Jul 28) fixing three OOB
read / stack overflow bugs in rtl8723bs where length or offset fields
from untrusted wireless frames are used without validating that enough
bytes remain in the buffer:

1/3 fix OOB read / stack overflow in rtw_get_wps_attr()
2/3 fix OOB read in rtw_action_frame_parse()
3/3 fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()

It's been about four weeks with no review comments. Just checking
whether the series is still on your radar, or if there's anything
you'd like changed before it can be applied.

Thanks,
Muhammad Bilal

On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 12:22 PM Muhammad Bilal <meatuni001@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Apologies for the context-less ping, that was on me.
>
> For reference, this is the v2 series (sent Jul 28) fixing three OOB read / stack overflow bugs in rtl8723bs where length or offset fields from untrusted wireless frames are used without validating that enough bytes remain in the buffer:
>
> 1/3 fix OOB read / stack overflow in rtw_get_wps_attr()
> 2/3 fix OOB read in rtw_action_frame_parse()
> 3/3 fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()
>
> It's been about four weeks with no review comments. Just checking whether the series is still on your radar, or if there's anything you'd like changed before it can be applied.
>
> Thanks,
> Muhammad Bilal
>
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 10:28 AM, Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 04:10:36AM +0500, Muhammad Bilal wrote:
>> > ping.
>>
>> Context-less pings are not really helpful :(

Re: [PATCH v2 0/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix multiple OOB reads in IE and frame parsing

[Greg KH]

Please do not top-post.

On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 12:22:54PM +0500, Muhammad Bilal wrote:
> Apologies for the context-less ping, that was on me.
> 
> For reference, this is the v2 series (sent Jul 28) fixing three OOB read /
> stack overflow bugs in rtl8723bs where length or offset fields from
> untrusted wireless frames are used without validating that enough bytes
> remain in the buffer:
> 
> 1/3 fix OOB read / stack overflow in rtw_get_wps_attr()
> 2/3 fix OOB read in rtw_action_frame_parse()
> 3/3 fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()
> 
> It's been about four weeks with no review comments. Just checking whether
> the series is still on your radar, or if there's anything you'd like
> changed before it can be applied.

It's in my queue to review, it's the middle of the merge window right
now and nothing can be done until after -rc1 happens.

Also, have you tested this on real hardware?

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH v2 0/3] staging: rtl8723bs: fix multiple OOB reads in IE and frame parsing

[Muhammad Bilal]

Hi,

Yes, I have tested this patch series on a real device with the RTL8723BS
SDIO wireless adapter.

The device was tested connecting to access points, handling management
and action frames, and verifying normal network traffic without issues
or regressions.

Thanks,
Muhammad Bilal

On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 12:29 PM Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>
> Please do not top-post.
>
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 12:22:54PM +0500, Muhammad Bilal wrote:
> > Apologies for the context-less ping, that was on me.
> >
> > For reference, this is the v2 series (sent Jul 28) fixing three OOB read /
> > stack overflow bugs in rtl8723bs where length or offset fields from
> > untrusted wireless frames are used without validating that enough bytes
> > remain in the buffer:
> >
> > 1/3 fix OOB read / stack overflow in rtw_get_wps_attr()
> > 2/3 fix OOB read in rtw_action_frame_parse()
> > 3/3 fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()
> >
> > It's been about four weeks with no review comments. Just checking whether
> > the series is still on your radar, or if there's anything you'd like
> > changed before it can be applied.
>
> It's in my queue to review, it's the middle of the merge window right
> now and nothing can be done until after -rc1 happens.
>
> Also, have you tested this on real hardware?
>
> thanks,
>
> greg k-h