# CVE-2026-74648: staging: rtl8723bs: validate monitor transmit frame lengths

> A missing length validation in the rtl8723bs Wi-Fi driver allows out-of-bounds reads, potentially causing crashes or information disclosure.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 22 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 16 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-74648, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74648, GHSA-m738-m8ph-wwcp, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74648

## What is CVE-2026-74648?

CVE-2026-74648 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 Aug 2026. 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: validate monitor transmit frame lengths

rtw_cfg80211_monitor_if_xmit_entry() removes the radiotap header and
then reads the 802.11 frame control field without checking that a base
802.11 header remains.

The data path also pulls the calculated 802.11, QoS and SNAP header
span before confirming that the skb contains it. A truncated frame can
therefore cause out-of-bounds reads or leave insufficient data for the
Ethernet address writes.

Reject frames that do not contain the base 802.11 header and data
frames that do not contain their complete calculated header span.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74648?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-74648?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-74648 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74648 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-74648 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-74648 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 Aug 2026. 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-2026-74648 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-2026-74648/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74648/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-74648
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-74648
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-74648

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74648/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.