# CVE-2022-49740: wifi: brcmfmac: Check the count value of channel spec to prevent out-of-bounds reads

> A missing bounds check in the Linux kernel brcmfmac WiFi driver allows out-of-bounds reads, potentially causing crashes or information disclosure.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 Mar 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49740, GHSA-m76m-37m5-h9wj, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49740

## What is CVE-2022-49740?

CVE-2022-49740 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Mar 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: brcmfmac: Check the count value of channel spec to prevent out-of-bounds reads

This patch fixes slab-out-of-bounds reads in brcmfmac that occur in
brcmf_construct_chaninfo() and brcmf_enable_bw40_2g() when the count
value of channel specifications provided by the device is greater than
the length of 'list->element[]', decided by the size of the 'list'
allocated with kzalloc(). The patch adds checks that make the functions
free the buffer and return -EINVAL if that is the case. Note that the
negative return is handled by the caller, brcmf_setup_wiphybands() or
brcmf_cfg80211_attach().

Found by a modified version of syzkaller.

Crash Report from brcmf_construct_chaninfo():
==================================================================
BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in brcmf_setup_wiphybands+0x1238/0x1430
Read of size 4 at addr ffff888115f24600 by task kworker/0:2/1896

CPU: 0 PID: 1896 Comm: kworker/0:2 Tainted: G        W  O      5.14.0+ #132
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.12.1-0-ga5cab58e9a3f-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
Workqueue: usb_hub_wq hub_event
Call Trace:
 dump_stack_lvl+0x57/0x7d
 print_address_description.constprop.0.cold+0x93/0x334
 kasan_report.cold+0x83/0xdf
 brcmf_setup_wiphybands+0x1238/0x1430
 brcmf_cfg80211_attach+0x2118/0x3fd0
 brcmf_attach+0x389/0xd40
 brcmf_usb_probe+0x12de/0x1690
 usb_probe_interface+0x25f/0x710
 really_probe+0x1be/0xa90
 __driver_probe_device+0x2ab/0x460
 driver_probe_device+0x49/0x120
 __device_attach_driver+0x18a/0x250
 bus_for_each_drv+0x123/0x1a0
 __device_attach+0x207/0x330
 bus_probe_device+0x1a2/0x260
 device_add+0xa61/0x1ce0
 usb_set_configuration+0x984/0x1770
 usb_generic_driver_probe+0x69/0x90
 usb_probe_device+0x9c/0x220
 really_probe+0x1be/0xa90
 __driver_probe_device+0x2ab/0x460
 driver_probe_device+0x49/0x120
 __device_attach_driver+0x18a/0x250
 bus_for_each_drv+0x123/0x1a0
 __device_attach+0x207/0x330
 bus_probe_device+0x1a2/0x260
 device_add+0xa61/0x1ce0
 usb_new_device.cold+0x463/0xf66
 hub_event+0x10d5/0x3330
 process_one_work+0x873/0x13e0
 worker_thread+0x8b/0xd10
 kthread+0x379/0x450
 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30

Allocated by task 1896:
 kasan_save_stack+0x1b/0x40
 __kasan_kmalloc+0x7c/0x90
 kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x19e/0x330
 brcmf_setup_wiphybands+0x290/0x1430
 brcmf_cfg80211_attach+0x2118/0x3fd0
 brcmf_attach+0x389/0xd40
 brcmf_usb_probe+0x12de/0x1690
 usb_probe_interface+0x25f/0x710
 really_probe+0x1be/0xa90
 __driver_probe_device+0x2ab/0x460
 driver_probe_device+0x49/0x120
 __device_attach_driver+0x18a/0x250
 bus_for_each_drv+0x123/0x1a0
 __device_attach+0x207/0x330
 bus_probe_device+0x1a2/0x260
 device_add+0xa61/0x1ce0
 usb_set_configuration+0x984/0x1770
 usb_generic_driver_probe+0x69/0x90
 usb_probe_device+0x9c/0x220
 really_probe+0x1be/0xa90
 __driver_probe_device+0x2ab/0x460
 driver_probe_device+0x49/0x120
 __device_attach_driver+0x18a/0x250
 bus_for_each_drv+0x123/0x1a0
 __device_attach+0x207/0x330
 bus_probe_device+0x1a2/0x260
 device_add+0xa61/0x1ce0
 usb_new_device.cold+0x463/0xf66
 hub_event+0x10d5/0x3330
 process_one_work+0x873/0x13e0
 worker_thread+0x8b/0xd10
 kthread+0x379/0x450
 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30

The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff888115f24000
 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-2k of size 2048
The buggy address is located 1536 bytes inside of
 2048-byte region [ffff888115f24000, ffff888115f24800)

Memory state around the buggy address:
 ffff888115f24500: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 ffff888115f24580: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>ffff888115f24600: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
                   ^
 ffff888115f24680: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
 ffff888115f24700: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
==================================================================

Crash Report from brcmf_enable_bw40_2g():
==========
---truncated---

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49740?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49740?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49740 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49740 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-49740 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49740 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Mar 2025. 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-2022-49740 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2022-49740/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49740/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49740
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49740
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49740

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49740/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.