# CVE-2026-90016: staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()

> An out-of-bounds read in the rtl8723bs Wi-Fi driver allows attackers to leak kernel memory or cause a system crash via crafted wireless frames.

- **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 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-101616, BELL-CVE-2026-90016, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-90016, GHSA-54jr-3vx9-2c5p, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-90016

## What is CVE-2026-90016?

CVE-2026-90016 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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: fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()

rtw_restruct_wmm_ie() scans in_ie for a WMM IE with:

	while (i < in_len) {
		...
		if (i + 5 < in_len && in_ie[i] == 0xDD && ...) {
			...
			break;
		}
		i += (in_ie[i + 1] + 2); /* to the next IE element */
	}

When the "i + 5 < in_len" match check fails simply because i is
within 5 bytes of the end of the buffer (i.e. no WMM IE was found
near the tail of in_ie), execution falls through to
"i += (in_ie[i + 1] + 2)", which reads in_ie[i + 1]. If i == in_len
- 1 at that point, this is a 1-byte out-of-bounds read of an
attacker-influenced IE buffer built from association/scan data.

Commit a75281626fc8f ("staging: rtl8723bs: fix potential
out-of-bounds read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie") added the "i + 5 <
in_len" guard to the match condition itself, but did not add an
equivalent guard before the fallthrough advance, so the same class
of OOB read remained reachable through the non-matching path.

Add an explicit bounds check before advancing to the next IE.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-90016?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-90016?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-90016 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-90016 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-90016 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-90016 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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-2026-90016 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-2026-90016/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-90016/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-90016
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-90016
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-90016

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-90016/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.