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Ar8035 FirmwareOperating system · Qualcomm

CVE-2023-33082

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-12-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Memory corruption while sending an Assoc Request having BTM Query or BTM Response containing MBO IE.

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 confidence

A memory corruption vulnerability exists in the 802.11 wireless stack when processing Association Request frames containing BTM Query or BTM Response with MBO (Mobile Broadband Offload) Information Elements. An attacker can trigger this by sending a specially crafted Assoc Request with these specific IEs, leading to memory corruption that could enable remote code execution.

MitigationApply vendor-provided firmware updates that address the improper bounds checking when parsing BTM and MBO IEs in association request frames. If no update is available, consider network segmentation to limit exposure of affected wireless infrastructure.

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 data
Ar8035 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Ar9380 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Csr8811 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Wcn685x 5 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Wcn685x 1 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Wcn785x 1 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Wcn785x 5 FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions
Flight Rb5 5g Platform FirmwareOperating system
Affected:all versions

CVSS 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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the wireless chipset or firmware model
    Check your network device documentation, access point management interface, or run 'lspci'/'lsusb' for wireless cards to identify the Qualcomm chipset model (Ar8035, Ar9380, Csr8811, Wcn685x, Wcn785x, or Flight RB5).
    Affected if The device uses any of the listed Qualcomm chipsets: Ar8035, Ar9380, Csr8811, Wcn685x, Wcn785x, or Flight RB5 platform firmware.
  2. Verify wireless access point or station mode is enabled
    Confirm the device is operating as a wireless access point (AP) or client that accepts/processes 802.11 association requests. Check interface status with 'iwconfig' or 'ip link show' for wireless interfaces.
    Affected if The device functions as a Wi-Fi access point or authenticates wireless clients and processes association frames.
  3. Check if BTM and MBO IEs are enabled in wireless configuration
    Examine the wireless AP configuration for BSS Transition Management (BTM) and MBO (Mobile Broadband Offload) settings. On Linux, use 'iw list' or check hostapd.conf for 'bss_transition', 'mbo', or 'wnm' parameters.
    Affected if BTM Query or BTM Response with MBO Information Elements are enabled or permitted in the wireless configuration.
  4. Capture and inspect association request frames
    Use a network sniffer such as Wireshark or tcpdump with a monitor mode interface to capture 802.11 association frames. Filter for 'Probe Request' or 'Association Request' frames and inspect the Information Elements for 'MBO' (ID 127) or 'BTM' (ID 127 with subtype).
    Affected if Association Request frames containing MBO or BTM IEs are observed being processed by the device.

If the device uses any of the affected Qualcomm firmware variants and processes 802.11 association requests with BTM or MBO IEs enabled, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-2023-33082.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor-provided firmware updates that address the improper bounds checking when parsing BTM and MBO IEs in association request frames. If no update is available, consider network segmentation to limit exposure of affected wireless infrastructure.

Fix this in Ar8035 Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,760
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-33082 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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