Description

An issue was discovered in Wi-Fi in Samsung Mobile Processor Exynos 850, 1280, 1330, 1380, 1480, 2400, W920, and W930. A malformed Netlink command can trigger an out-of-bounds read, potentially leading to information leakage.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "2.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-14T02:17:14.703Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-14T02:17:14.703Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability involves an out-of-bounds read flaw within the Wi-Fi implementation of various Samsung Exynos mobile processors. The issue arises from the improper processing of malformed Netlink commands, which are used for communication between the Linux kernel and user-space processes.\nThe vulnerability affects Exynos 850, 1280, 1330, 1380, 1480, 2400, W920, and W930 chipsets. Successful exploitation allows an attacker to trigger an out-of-bounds read, resulting in unauthorized information leakage from the device's memory. This poses significant privacy and security risks, as sensitive data residing in the proximity of the buffer can be disclosed.\nThe vulnerability is primarily accessible through the Wi-Fi subsystem interface. Exploitation requires the ability to interact with the Wi-Fi driver, potentially through specialized Netlink messages. While the specific level of privilege required is often tied to the Wi-Fi management service, local attackers or processes with appropriate permissions could leverage this flaw to exfiltrate kernel or process-specific memory contents. This risk necessitates timely firmware updates from the device manufacturer to patch the driver-level buffer handling logic.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the insufficient input validation of Netlink command structures processed by the Samsung Exynos Wi-Fi driver. Netlink is a socket-based IPC mechanism used in Linux-based systems to transfer information between kernel modules and user-space applications. In this specific implementation, the driver fails to properly verify the size or bounds of data attributes provided within a crafted Netlink message before performing read operations.\nDuring the attack flow, a malicious actor crafts a malformed Netlink command containing manipulated payload fields. When this command is parsed by the Wi-Fi driver, the internal logic attempts to access a buffer index or pointer offset derived from the untrusted command attributes. Because the driver lacks a strict boundary check for these attributes, the offset calculation leads to an out-of-bounds read, where the driver reads data from memory locations residing outside the allocated buffer space.\nThis behavior results in the inclusion of unintended memory content within the driver's subsequent response or logging mechanism. Depending on the memory layout at the time of execution, the leaked data could potentially contain sensitive items such as cryptographic keys, session tokens, or other restricted process memory segments. The vulnerability is inherent to the driver's parsing function, which is responsible for deserializing the Netlink protocol messages specific to the affected Exynos hardware platforms.\nThe affected components are the Wi-Fi subsystem drivers for the Samsung Exynos 850, 1280, 1330, 1380, 1480, 2400, W920, and W930 processors. As these are kernel-space components, the vulnerability operates with high privilege, making it a critical concern for system integrity. While Netlink commands are typically handled by system-level services, any process that can interface with the socket family associated with the Wi-Fi subsystem may become a vector for exploitation. Post-exploitation, the primary impact is the unauthorized disclosure of information; however, in certain memory management scenarios, repeated or granular out-of-bounds reads could facilitate further exploitation techniques such as bypassing Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) or other memory protection mechanisms by providing a side-channel for memory discovery."
}