CVE-2023-33116
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 while parsing ieee80211_parse_mscs_ie in WIN WLAN driver.
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 transient denial of service vulnerability exists in the Windows WLAN driver's ieee80211_parse_mscs_ie function. An attacker can trigger a crash or hang by sending a specially crafted MSCS (Mesh Centralized Control Service) Information Element (IE) in a wireless frame, causing the driver to fail parsing the malformed data.
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 Qualcomm wireless hardwareOpen Device Manager, expand 'Network adapters', and look for Qualcomm/Atheros wireless adapters matching the affected models (Ar8035, Ar9380, Csr8811, Fastconnect 6900, Fastconnect 7800, Flight Rb5, Immersive Home 214/216)Affected if Any of these Qualcomm wireless adapters are present in the system
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Check wireless firmware versionIn Device Manager, right-click the Qualcomm wireless adapter, select 'Properties', go to the 'Driver' tab, and note the driver/firmware version. Alternatively, use 'netsh wlan show drivers' to list wireless adapter detailsAffected if The adapter is a listed Qualcomm model - note that all firmware versions are affected
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Verify WLAN is enabledCheck if wireless networking is active by running 'netsh wlan show interfaces' or checking the wireless icon in the system trayAffected if Wireless is enabled and the system can receive wireless frames containing MSCS IE
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Check for wireless driver crash eventsOpen Event Viewer, navigate to 'Windows Logs' > 'System', and filter for Event ID 1001 (Bugcheck) or Event ID 4101 (WLAN AutoConfig) related to the wireless driver crashing around the time of network issuesAffected if Recent system crashes or hangs correlate with wireless activity and driver failures
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Monitor for wireless client disconnectionsReview wireless client connection logs or use 'netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid' to observe if clients are experiencing unexpected disconnections that coincide with presence of MSCS-enabled access pointsAffected if Unusual wireless disconnections occur, especially when connecting to networks that broadcast MSCS Information Elements
A system is affected if it has any of the listed Qualcomm wireless adapters (Ar8035, Ar9380, Csr8811, Fastconnect 6900/7800, Flight Rb5, Immersive Home 214/216) with WLAN enabled, as all firmware versions of these adapters are vulnerable to the malformed MSCS IE parsing DoS.
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 the vendor-supplied patch or updated WLAN driver from the affected system OEM. As a defensive measure, monitor for wireless client disconnections that may indicate exploitation attempts.
- Consultation4.0 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-2023-33116 — 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-2023-33116 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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