# CVE-2021-23168: Denial of service in Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless WiFi and Killer(TM) WiFi products

> An out-of-bounds read in Intel and Killer WiFi drivers allows unauthenticated adjacent attackers to cause a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Aug 2022
- **Updated:** 5 May 2025
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2021-23168, GHSA-2qgc-gr4q-7mjq

## What is CVE-2021-23168?

CVE-2021-23168 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless WiFi and Killer(TM) WiFi products, published on 18 Aug 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Out of bounds read for some Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless WiFi and Killer(TM) WiFi products may allow an unauthenticated user to potentially enable denial of service via adjacent access.

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-23168?

It affects 18 products.


Products: Intel Dual Band Wireless-Ac 3165 Firmware, Intel Dual Band Wireless-Ac 3168 Firmware, Intel Dual Band Wireless-Ac 8260 Firmware, Intel Dual Band Wireless-Ac 8265 Firmware, Intel Killer Ac 1550 Firmware, Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6 Ax1650 Firmware, Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6e Ax1675 Firmware, Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6e Ax1690 Firmware, Intel Proset Wi-Fi 6e Ax210 Firmware, Intel Wi-Fi 6 Ax200 Firmware, Intel Wi-Fi 6 Ax201 Firmware, Intel Wi-Fi 6e Ax211 Firmware, Intel Wi-Fi 6e Ax411 Firmware, Intel Wireless-Ac 9260 Firmware, Intel Wireless-Ac 9461 Firmware, Intel Wireless-Ac 9462 Firmware, Intel Wireless-Ac 9560 Firmware, Intel Wireless 7265 \(Rev D\) Firmware.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-23168?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-23168 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-23168 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless WiFi and Killer(TM) WiFi products

- [CVE-2020-12321](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-12321/): Privilege escalation in Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-11152](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11152/): Memory corruption in Intel(R) WIFI Drivers and Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software extension DLL (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2021-33847](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-33847/): Memory corruption in Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) and Killer(TM) Bluetooth(R) products (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2019-11151](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11151/): Memory corruption in Intel(R) WIFI Drivers and Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software extension DLL (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2021-23179](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-23179/): Information disclosure in Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) and Killer(TM) Bluetooth(R) products (high 7.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-23168 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-23168 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless WiFi and Killer(TM) WiFi products, published on 18 Aug 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-23168 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless WiFi and Killer(TM) WiFi products. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-23168/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-23168/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-23168
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-23168
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-23168

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-23168/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.