# CVE-2025-68254: staging: rtl8723bs: fix out-of-bounds read in OnBeacon ESR IE parsing

> A malformed beacon frame can trigger an out-of-bounds read in the rtl8723bs driver, causing a kernel panic and denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/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:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-72514, BELL-CVE-2025-68254, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68254, GHSA-ggmq-6856-gj57, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-68254, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-68254, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-68254, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-68254, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-68254, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68254

## What is CVE-2025-68254?

CVE-2025-68254 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 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:

staging: rtl8723bs: fix out-of-bounds read in OnBeacon ESR IE parsing

The Extended Supported Rates (ESR) IE handling in OnBeacon accessed
*(p + 1 + ielen) and *(p + 2 + ielen) without verifying that these
offsets lie within the received frame buffer. A malformed beacon with
an ESR IE positioned at the end of the buffer could cause an
out-of-bounds read, potentially triggering a kernel panic.

Add a boundary check to ensure that the ESR IE body and the subsequent
bytes are within the limits of the frame before attempting to access
them.

This prevents OOB reads caused by malformed beacon frames.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68254?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68254?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68254 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68254 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68254 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68254 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 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-2025-68254 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2025-68254/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68254/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68254
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68254
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68254

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68254/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.