CVE-2022-41873 Out-of-bounds read and write in BLE L2CAP module

Medium 4.2 Published 11 Nov 2022 Updated 23 Apr 2025

Attackers can trigger out-of-bounds memory access in the BLE L2CAP module via crafted channel IDs, potentially leading to code execution or crashes.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2022-41873?

CVE-2022-41873 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in contiki-ng, published on 11 Nov 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Contiki-NG is an open-source, cross-platform operating system for Next-Generation IoT devices. Versions prior to 4.9 are vulnerable to an Out-of-bounds read. While processing the L2CAP protocol, the Bluetooth Low Energy stack of Contiki-NG needs to map an incoming channel ID to its metadata structure. While looking up the corresponding channel structure in get_channel_for_cid (in os/net/mac/ble/ble-l2cap.c), a bounds check is performed on the incoming channel ID, which is meant to ensure that the channel ID does not exceed the maximum number of supported channels.However, an integer truncation issue leads to only the lowest byte of the channel ID to be checked, which leads to an incomplete out-of-bounds check. A crafted channel ID leads to out-of-bounds memory to be read and written with attacker-controlled data. The vulnerability has been patched in the "develop" branch of Contiki-NG, and will be included in release 4.9. As a workaround, Users can apply the patch in Contiki-NG pull request 2081 on GitHub.

Weakness: CWE-787, CWE-125

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-41873?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Contiki-Ng Contiki-Ng.

How do I fix CVE-2022-41873?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-41873 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2022-41873 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-41873 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-m5cj-fw8m-ffgf.