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

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

- **Severity:** Medium 4.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 11 Nov 2022
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-m5cj-fw8m-ffgf

## 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 (Out-of-bounds Write), CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-41873?

It affects 1 product.


Products: 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.

## Is CVE-2022-41873 being exploited?

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

## Other vulnerabilities in contiki-ng

- [CVE-2018-19417](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-19417/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2023-30546](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-30546/): Contiki-NG has off-by-one error in Antelope DBMS (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-24336](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-24336/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-14934](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14934/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-14935](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14935/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-41873 and fix it if it is affected.

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

Affected product: contiki-ng. 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-2022-41873/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-41873/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-41873
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-41873
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-41873

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-41873/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.