* [CVE-2026-97500][MODERATE REGULAR] wifi: rtw89: phy: check length before parsing PHY status IE [ Upstream
@ 2026-09-24 23:10 21% AL-KERNEL
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From: AL-KERNEL @ 2026-09-24 23:10 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: kernel-cve
CVE: CVE-2026-97500
Priority: MODERATE REGULAR
AL-KERNEL base severity: MODERATE
KPANIC flag: NO
Patch: wifi: rtw89: phy: check length before parsing PHY status IE [ Upstream
Commit: 213f9e0ab2b4f35fe8d342333238c6cc91513fbf
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=213f9e0ab2b4f35fe8d342333238c6cc91513fbf
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-97500
Analysis date: Thu, 24 Sep 2026 19:10:54 -0400
ActionableScore: 2
ActionableScore lower bound: 1
Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate
Manual review required: NO
Summary:
No one-sentence report phrase was found.
======================================================================
ABOUT THIS REPORT
======================================================================
The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-97500 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-97500
The original announcement does not normally provide a security severity
estimate, CVSS assessment, or enough information to determine whether the
reported kernel bug represents a practically relevant security issue.
This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. It combines
an autonomous classifier with LLM-assisted technical analysis and a
separate ActionableScore mechanism.
The purpose of this report is to prioritize Linux kernel CVEs before
manual review, identify cases that require prompt investigation, and
support automatic closure of issues that are unlikely to have meaningful
security impact.
Published priority for this report: MODERATE REGULAR
Manual review required: NO
A detailed explanation of the methodology and priority rules is included
at the end of this message.
======================================================================
AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT
======================================================================
CVE-2026-97500 MODERATE https://www.kernelcve.org/list/?q=CVE-2026-97500 CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN MODERATE Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';CWE-125;*CWE-20;CWE-703;Other CVSS 'AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';BEST CVSS score: '5.3';DESCR 'An out of bounds read can occur in the rtw89 PHY status parser because rtw89_core_process_phy_status_ie can process a PHY status IE before its reported length is checked against the received buffer boundary. Unexpected PHY status information from the WiFi hardware or firmware may therefore cause the driver to access data beyond the valid IE range and may result in a kernel fault or crash. For the CVSS the PR:N because no local account or privileges are needed if the malformed PHY status condition can be induced through the radio interface. The base assessment uses physical access because the patch does not demonstrate that an ordinary remote WiFi frame fully controls the hardware reported PHY status length. The paranoid assessment uses adjacent access because a nearby attacker may be able to influence received radio data. Impact is currently assessed as denial of service only because the patch supports an out of bounds read but does not demonstrate an information disclosure or write primitive.';YES REQUIRES MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate (with actual score 2) YES REMOTE OOB SIMPLEFIX NETWORK HARDWARE LINUS DECREASED_TO_MODERATEREG_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN4 NO NO checked
======================================================================
ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
======================================================================
ActionableScore=2
ActionableScoreLower=1
PrimitiveClass=CLASS_C
RealUAF=NO
HostAdminRequired=UNKNOWN
NamespaceScopedPrivilege=UNKNOWN
ImportantCandidate=NO
ManualReview=RECOMMENDED
AutoDowngradeAllowed=YES
1. ActionableScore
* Raw conservative score: 1
* Conservative score: 1
* Raw paranoid score: 2
* Paranoid score: 2
* Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate**::
No floor or cap applies.
2. Signal breakdown
Conservative:
* +1 Weak invalid-read and crash concern. The PHY status IE parser can invoke rtw89_core_process_phy_status_ie before verifying that the reported IE length remains inside the received PHY-status buffer. The commit explicitly identifies possible out-of-range access.
Paranoid additional signal:
* +1 Firmware-mediated external influence. The malformed length is reported by WiFi hardware or firmware while processing received PHY status data. A nearby wireless attacker may possibly influence the radio conditions or received data that reaches this path, but direct attacker control of the reported length is not established.
Important non-awarded signals:
* Controlled reclaim is not demonstrated.
* Arbitrary or directed write is not demonstrated.
* Real UAF, stale lifetime use, double free, and refcount misuse are not demonstrated.
* Confidentiality is not awarded because no copy-to-user, network disclosure, or other read-back path is shown.
* Integrity is not awarded because the patch establishes an invalid read, not a write or ownership violation.
* Direct network reachability is not established. The affected metadata is hardware or firmware mediated rather than an ordinary WiFi frame field directly parsed from the air interface.
* Reliable kernel crash is not independently demonstrated. The commit states that the parser might access out of range.
* No privilege escalation or security-boundary bypass is established.
3. Reachability analysis
The vulnerable function parses PHY status information received from Realtek rtw89 WiFi hardware or firmware. The supplied patch does not establish that a normal remote or adjacent WiFi transmitter can directly control the malformed PHY status IE length.
The most plausible external attacker model is an adjacent WiFi attacker, not an Internet attacker. However, that model remains unconfirmed because the malformed length may result from device or firmware behavior rather than attacker-controlled 802.11 frame contents.
No host-admin requirement is established, but below-host-admin attacker reachability is also not proven for the complete trigger. Therefore HostAdminRequired is UNKNOWN. No namespace capability or prior host setup is relevantly established. The rtw89 driver and supported Realtek hardware are prerequisites, but the provided evidence does not justify a rare-hardware penalty.
4. Primitive and severity interpretation
The established primitive is a potential out-of-bounds read in the PHY status IE parsing path. The parser previously processed an IE before checking whether advancing by its reported length exceeded the received status-buffer boundary.
This is not a UAF, active-object lifetime violation, refcount mutation, OOB write, or semantic security-boundary bypass. The affected data is a fixed receive-side status buffer, not an attacker-reclaimable active kernel object. The patch supports possible invalid memory access and resulting kernel fault or DoS, but does not support an information disclosure, integrity violation, or privilege-escalation primitive.
The issue is CLASS_C because the demonstrated behavior is invalid-state and crash-oriented without an independently useful corruption primitive. ImportantCandidate is NO and AutoDowngradeAllowed is YES because no unresolved active lifetime, controlled corruption, write, authorization, or ownership primitive is established.
Likely operational severity is ordinary Moderate or lower. Manual review is still recommended to determine whether affected Realtek firmware can produce attacker-influenceable malformed PHY status lengths from adjacent WiFi traffic.
5. One-sentence report phrase
A potential out-of-bounds read in the rtw89 PHY status IE parser may occur when hardware or firmware reports an unexpected IE length before the parser validates the received buffer boundary, potentially causing a kernel fault or denial of service.
6. Manual review recommendation
MANUAL CHECK RECOMMENDED
Verify whether malformed PHY status IE length values can be induced by adjacent WiFi traffic on affected Realtek hardware and firmware, or whether the condition is limited to non-adversarial hardware or firmware faults.
7. Call-site confidence
Call-site confidence: medium
======================================================================
UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY
======================================================================
Patch: wifi: rtw89: phy: check length before parsing PHY status IE [ Upstream
Commit: 213f9e0ab2b4f35fe8d342333238c6cc91513fbf
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=213f9e0ab2b4f35fe8d342333238c6cc91513fbf
Changed files:
drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtw89/core.c
Diff excerpt:
Not included in this email. See the upstream URL for the full patch.
Full patch:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=213f9e0ab2b4f35fe8d342333238c6cc91513fbf
======================================================================
DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY
======================================================================
The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-97500 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-97500
The original CVE announcement normally does not include a security-level
estimate. In particular, it may not contain a CVSS assessment, an impact
level, or enough information to determine whether the reported bug is a
practically relevant security issue. One purpose of this parallel CVE list
is to provide that missing technical and prioritization information.
The original goal of the AL-KERNEL project was to prioritize Linux kernel
CVE analysis automatically before manual review. The system can also help
identify non-security issues that may be suitable for automatic closure.
This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin.
The first analysis stage combines an autonomous classifier with additional
LLM-based analysis. The autonomous classifier runs locally on a CPU and is
based on a backpropagation neural network. Together, these mechanisms
produce a technical vulnerability description, identify likely weakness
types, estimate CVSS severity, and provide input for ActionableScore.
Two CVSS estimates are retained because incomplete kernel vulnerability
information often permits more than one defensible interpretation:
Conservative CVSS vector: AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 5.3
The conservative vector represents a lower-impact interpretation.
The Best/paranoid vector intentionally represents a plausible upper-bound
interpretation and should not automatically be treated as demonstrated
real-world impact.
CVSS may also need to be adjusted for a particular Linux deployment,
because actual reachability, privileges, enabled kernel configuration,
hardware, namespaces, exposed device nodes, and other environmental
conditions can differ significantly between systems.
A separate ActionableScore mechanism evaluates practical remediation
urgency. Its analysis may include reachability, attack prerequisites,
subsystem exposure, memory-corruption characteristics, denial-of-service
reliability, and possible confidentiality, integrity, or
privilege-escalation impact.
Conservative ActionableScore: 1
Paranoid ActionableScore: 2
The final base severity is taken directly from the second tab-separated
field of the AL-KERNEL classification result. ActionableScore does not
replace or independently override that final AL-KERNEL decision, and
if ActionableScore adjusted impact level of ALKERNEL, then you would see
self-readable flags above like INCREASED_TO_HIGH_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCOREHIGHEREQTHAN7.
For an AL-KERNEL result of MODERATE, this report uses the following
additional presentation split:
ActionableScore below 5 -> MODERATE REGULAR
ActionableScore 5 or more -> MODERATE 7.0
The distinction between MODERATE REGULAR and MODERATE 7.0 makes it
possible to identify Moderate issues that should receive manual analysis
and fixes before lower-priority MODERATE REGULAR issues. In many cases,
MODERATE REGULAR fixes may wait for a later rebase or routine update.
There is one override in which MODERATE REGULAR becomes MODERATE 7.0
even when the ActionableScore is below 5. When the AL-KERNEL result
contains the KPANIC flag, a MODERATE result is always presented as
MODERATE 7.0. The KPANIC flag selected with few regexps without
usage of AI at all, so it helps to detect cases when Kernel Crash happens
and similar (to filter False-Negative results from the LLM usage).
KPANIC indicates that a reliable kernel crash, kernel panic, or similarly
serious kernel availability impact was identified by the classification
workflow.
AL-KERNEL base severity for this report: MODERATE
KPANIC detected for this report: NO
Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): MODERATE REGULAR
These results are intended to support engineering triage. They are
machine-generated estimates, and cases marked for manual review should
be validated by a human security engineer before final disposition.
For more info read docs linked from here: https://kernelcve.org/
(and you can submit you own patch there to generate such a report
for non-existant CVE-id yet).
Note that in many cases this AI tool selects higher severity, than
real is (means you can expect Importants instead of Moderate 7.0 or
Moderates 7.0 instead of regular Moderates). If you see such cases,
please use reply email interface to add additional manual analyses
info to this particular CVE.
And please, please, let me know when you see Lows instead of Importants
or Important instead of Low (because particular for such cases I
need to tune this AI tool to make it better for this one and next similar).
My contact email for such notifications is [email protected] (and both
send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).
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