[PATCH v3] wifi: cfg80211: add cfg80211_validate_ies() helper and use it
From: Deepanshu Kartikey
Date: Tue Jul 28 2026 - 22:19:32 EST
The KASAN allocation trace shows that a malformed IE buffer is
stored via SIOCSIWGENIE (cfg80211_wext_siwgenie()) without any
validation. The crash trace shows that a subsequent SIOCSIWESSID
triggers a connection attempt which calls cfg80211_sme_get_conn_ies()
to process the stored IE buffer, causing:
- An out-of-bounds read in skip_ie() which reads ies[pos+1]
(the length byte) past the end of the 1-byte buffer.
- An integer underflow in the memcpy size argument when offs
returned by ieee80211_ie_split() exceeds ies_len, causing
unsigned subtraction to wrap to SIZE_MAX and triggering a
fortify panic.
Fix this by adding a cfg80211_validate_ies() helper that uses
for_each_element() and for_each_element_completed() to verify
that all information elements in a buffer are well-formed.
Refactor the existing duplicate patterns in validate_beacon_head()
and validate_ie_attr() in nl80211.c to use the new helper, and
use it in cfg80211_wext_siwgenie() to validate the IE buffer
before storing it. Return -EINVAL if validation fails.
Reported-by: syzbot+cc867e537e4bd36f69bb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=cc867e537e4bd36f69bb
Signed-off-by: Deepanshu Kartikey <kartikey406@xxxxxxxxx>
---
v3: Refactor validation into cfg80211_validate_ies() helper and
use it in validate_beacon_head(), validate_ie_attr(), and
cfg80211_wext_siwgenie(), as suggested by Jeff Johnson.
Remove redundant ie_len < 2 check since for_each_element()
already handles that case. Fix missing semicolon after
/* nothing */ in for_each_element() body.
v2: Use for_each_element() and for_each_element_completed()
instead of open-coded validation loop, as suggested by
Johannes Berg.
---
net/wireless/nl80211.c | 15 ++-------------
net/wireless/nl80211.h | 2 ++
net/wireless/util.c | 11 +++++++++++
net/wireless/wext-sme.c | 3 +++
4 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)
diff --git a/net/wireless/nl80211.c b/net/wireless/nl80211.c
index 5adcb6bd0fc5..27bbaf916574 100644
--- a/net/wireless/nl80211.c
+++ b/net/wireless/nl80211.c
@@ -228,7 +228,6 @@ static int validate_beacon_head(const struct nlattr *attr,
{
const u8 *data = nla_data(attr);
unsigned int len = nla_len(attr);
- const struct element *elem;
const struct ieee80211_mgmt *mgmt = (void *)data;
const struct ieee80211_ext *ext;
unsigned int fixedlen, hdrlen;
@@ -259,13 +258,8 @@ static int validate_beacon_head(const struct nlattr *attr,
data += fixedlen;
len -= fixedlen;
- for_each_element(elem, data, len) {
- /* nothing */
- }
-
- if (for_each_element_completed(elem, data, len))
+ if (cfg80211_validate_ies(data, len))
return 0;
-
err:
NL_SET_ERR_MSG_ATTR(extack, attr, "malformed beacon head");
return -EINVAL;
@@ -276,13 +270,8 @@ static int validate_ie_attr(const struct nlattr *attr,
{
const u8 *data = nla_data(attr);
unsigned int len = nla_len(attr);
- const struct element *elem;
-
- for_each_element(elem, data, len) {
- /* nothing */
- }
- if (for_each_element_completed(elem, data, len))
+ if (cfg80211_validate_ies(data, len))
return 0;
NL_SET_ERR_MSG_ATTR(extack, attr, "malformed information elements");
diff --git a/net/wireless/nl80211.h b/net/wireless/nl80211.h
index bdb065d14054..8322ced6b551 100644
--- a/net/wireless/nl80211.h
+++ b/net/wireless/nl80211.h
@@ -129,4 +129,6 @@ int nl80211_pmsr_start(struct sk_buff *skb, struct genl_info *info);
void nl80211_mlo_reconf_add_done(struct net_device *dev,
struct cfg80211_mlo_reconf_done_data *data);
+bool cfg80211_validate_ies(const u8 *data, int len);
+
#endif /* __NET_WIRELESS_NL80211_H */
diff --git a/net/wireless/util.c b/net/wireless/util.c
index 24527bf321b2..dcaa5903bcd2 100644
--- a/net/wireless/util.c
+++ b/net/wireless/util.c
@@ -3083,3 +3083,14 @@ bool cfg80211_wdev_channel_allowed(struct wireless_dev *wdev,
return false;
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(cfg80211_wdev_channel_allowed);
+
+bool cfg80211_validate_ies(const u8 *data, int len)
+{
+ const struct element *elem;
+
+ for_each_element(elem, data, len) {
+ /* nothing */
+ }
+
+ return for_each_element_completed(elem, data, len);
+}
diff --git a/net/wireless/wext-sme.c b/net/wireless/wext-sme.c
index 573b6b15a446..1476d933c7e7 100644
--- a/net/wireless/wext-sme.c
+++ b/net/wireless/wext-sme.c
@@ -319,6 +319,9 @@ int cfg80211_wext_siwgenie(struct net_device *dev,
return 0;
if (ie_len) {
+ if (!cfg80211_validate_ies(extra, ie_len))
+ return -EINVAL;
+
ie = kmemdup(extra, ie_len, GFP_KERNEL);
if (!ie)
return -ENOMEM;
--
2.43.0