CVE-2026-90016
HIGHCVE-2026-90016 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.1) vulnerability in Kernel. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2026-90016 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()
Real-World Exposure
KernelReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Linux packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
staging: rtl8723bs: fix OOB read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie()
rtw_restruct_wmm_ie() scans in_ie for a WMM IE with:
while (i < in_len) {
...
if (i + 5 < in_len && in_ie[i] == 0xDD && ...) {
...
break;
}
i += (in_ie[i + 1] + 2); /* to the next IE element */
}
When the "i + 5 < in_len" match check fails simply because i is within 5 bytes of the end of the buffer (i.e. no WMM IE was found near the tail of in_ie), execution falls through to "i += (in_ie[i + 1] + 2)", which reads in_ie[i + 1]. If i == in_len
- 1 at that point, this is a 1-byte out-of-bounds read of an attacker-influenced IE buffer built from association/scan data.
Commit a75281626fc8f ("staging: rtl8723bs: fix potential out-of-bounds read in rtw_restruct_wmm_ie") added the "i + 5 < in_len" guard to the match condition itself, but did not add an equivalent guard before the fallthrough advance, so the same class of OOB read remained reachable through the non-matching path.
Add an explicit bounds check before advancing to the next IE.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐧Linux | Kernel | ≥ 4.12.0&&< 6.18.52 | 6.18.52 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for Kernel. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update Kernel to 6.18.52 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-90016 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2026-90016 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2026-90016. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-90016 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2026-90016 across Linux dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.