Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2026-23073
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 · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: rsi: Fix memory corruption due to not set vif driver data size The struct ieee80211_vif contains trailing space for vif driver data, when struct ieee80211_vif is allocated, the total memory size that is allocated is sizeof(struct ieee80211_vif) + size of vif driver data. The size of vif driver data is set by each WiFi driver as needed. The RSI911x driver does not set vif driver data size, no trailing space for vif driver data is therefore allocated past struct ieee80211_vif . The RSI911x driver does however use the vif driver data to store its vif driver data structure "struct vif_priv". An access to vif->drv_priv leads to access out of struct ieee80211_vif bounds and corruption of some memory. In case of the failure observed locally, rsi_mac80211_add_interface() would write struct vif_priv *vif_info = (struct vif_priv *)vif->drv_priv; vif_info->vap_id = vap_idx. This write corrupts struct fq_tin member struct list_head new_flows . The flow = list_first_entry(head, struct fq_flow, flowchain); in fq_tin_reset() then reports non-NULL bogus address, which when accessed causes a crash. The trigger is very simple, boot the machine with init=/bin/sh , mount devtmpfs, sysfs, procfs, and then do "ip link set wlan0 up", "sleep 1", "ip link set wlan0 down" and the crash occurs. Fix this by setting the correct size of vif driver data, which is the size of "struct vif_priv", so that memory is allocated and the driver can store its driver data in it, instead of corrupting memory around it.
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 analysisThe program writes past the bounds of a buffer, overwriting adjacent memory an attacker can turn to their advantage. Crafted input can overwrite control data and redirect execution. Remediation is validating every index and length before a write, plus modern memory-safety mitigations.
General guidance for the out-of-bounds write class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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
Linux KernelOperating system
>= 3.15, < 5.10.249>= 5.11, < 5.15.199>= 5.16, < 6.1.162>= 6.2, < 6.6.122>= 6.7, < 6.12.68>= 6.13, < 6.18.8= 6.19CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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.
dbcve · scoped5.10.2495.15.1996.1.162
Upgrade to kernel 5.10.249+ (if on 5.10.x), 5.15.199+ (if on 5.11-5.15.x), 6.1.162+ (if on 5.16-6.1.x), or 6.6.122+ (if on 6.2-6.6.x) - or any later stable release
- Identify your current kernel version using 'uname -r'
- Determine which version range your kernel falls into from the affected ranges: 5.10.x, 5.11-5.15.x, 5.16-6.1.x, or 6.2-6.6.x
- For 5.10.x: upgrade to kernel version 5.10.249 or later
- For 5.11-5.15.x: upgrade to kernel version 5.15.199 or later
- For 5.16-6.1.x: upgrade to kernel version 6.1.162 or later
- For 6.2-6.6.x: upgrade to kernel version 6.6.122 or later
- After kernel upgrade, reboot the system
- Verify the fix by running 'ip link set wlan0 up' then 'ip link set wlan0 down' on a system with RSI911x WiFi hardware - should not crash
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-23073 — 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-2026-23073 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
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