Overview
In today’s interconnected world, wireless vulnerabilities pose a significant threat to the security of our systems. One such critical vulnerability has been discovered in the WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) AP (Access Point) driver, assigned CVE-2025-20686. This vulnerability, if left unpatched, could allow a malicious actor to execute code remotely, without any user interaction. The severity and potential impact of this vulnerability make it a matter of grave concern for any entity using affected versions of the WLAN AP driver.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-20686
Severity: Critical (CVSS: 8.8)
Attack Vector: Network (adjacent)
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
WLAN AP Driver | All versions prior to Patch WCNCR00415570
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability lies in the WLAN AP driver’s lack of a proper bounds check. This mistake can lead to an out-of-bounds write, a type of vulnerability where an application writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. In this scenario, an attacker could craft a malicious payload, which when processed by the WLAN AP driver, would cause it to write data outside of the allocated memory areas. This could potentially allow the attacker to execute code remotely on the target system.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a simplified conceptual example of a malicious payload that could potentially exploit this vulnerability:
POST /wlan/ap/driver/endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "bounds_overflow": "A"*1024 }In the example above, sending a JSON object with a value that exceeds the expected size could trigger the vulnerability. The ‘A’*1024 represents a string that is longer than the buffer assigned to handle it, leading to an out-of-bounds write.
Mitigation Guidance
To mitigate this vulnerability, users are strongly advised to apply the patch provided by the vendor (Patch ID: WCNCR00415570). In the interim, or if patching is not immediately feasible, the use of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can offer temporary protection by identifying and blocking attempts to exploit this vulnerability. However, these are not long-term solutions and cannot replace the need to apply the official vendor patch.