CVE-2023-33048
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedTransient DOS in WLAN Firmware while parsing t2lm buffers.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceA high-severity denial-of-service vulnerability exists in WLAN firmware during the parsing of t2lm (Type 2 Link Management) buffers. By sending specially crafted t2lm packets to an affected device, an attacker can cause the WLAN firmware to crash or become unresponsive, resulting in a transient denial of service.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify device model and firmware versionAccess the device's admin interface (web or CLI) and locate the status or system information page to record the exact model number and firmware version string.Affected if The device model matches one using the listed Qualcomm chipsets (Ar8035, Csr8811, Wcn685x, Wcn785x, or Immersive Home 214/216 platforms) and the firmware version is present.
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Confirm the WiFi chipset vendorCheck device specifications, hardware documentation, or use commands like 'lspci', 'iw list', or vendor-specific diagnostics to identify the wireless chipset manufacturer and model.Affected if The wireless chipset is any of: Qualcomm Ar8035, Qualcomm Csr8811, Qualcomm Wcn685x (any variant), or Qualcomm Wcn785x (any variant).
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Determine if WLAN interface is enabled and activeCheck device network status or wireless interface status via CLI (e.g., 'ip link show', 'iw dev', or vendor-specific commands) to see if any WiFi radios are up.Affected if Any WLAN interface is in an up or active state, making the device capable of receiving t2lm packets.
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Assess network exposure of WLANReview firewall rules, access control lists, or network configuration to determine if the WLAN interface is directly reachable from untrusted networks or the internet.Affected if The WLAN interface is not isolated by network segmentation or has management/access interfaces exposed to untrusted networks.
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Check for abnormal WLAN behavior logsReview system logs, kernel messages, or WLAN driver logs for crash reports, firmware restarts, or error messages related to t2lm or link management parsing.Affected if Logs show repeated firmware crashes, device restarts, or WLAN subsystem errors occurring without clear cause.
The device is affected if it embeds any of the listed Qualcomm wireless chipsets (Ar8035, Csr8811, Wcn685x, Wcn785x, or Immersive Home platforms) and has WLAN functionality enabled, regardless of firmware version since all versions are vulnerable.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply vendor-provided firmware updates for affected WLAN devices. If patches are unavailable, consider network segmentation to limit exposure and implement monitoring to detect abnormal WLAN behavior.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-33048 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-33048 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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