CVE-2025-20674: Remote Privilege Escalation in WLAN AP Driver

Overview

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has identified a critical security vulnerability, CVE-2025-20674, which resides in the wlan AP driver. This vulnerability provides a potential pathway for attackers to inject arbitrary packets due to a missing permission check. The implications of this vulnerability are severe, with the possibility of remote privilege escalation, leading to system compromise or data leakage. With a CVSS score of 9.8, it is of utmost importance to address this vulnerability immediately, particularly for entities that rely heavily on wireless networks for their operations.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-20674
Severity: Critical, CVSS score 9.8
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Remote escalation of privilege leading to potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

WLAN AP Driver | All versions prior to patch WCNCR00413202

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of a missing permission check in the wlan AP driver. This check omission allows a malicious actor to inject arbitrary packets into the network traffic processed by the driver. With careful crafting, these packets could be designed to escalate the privilege level of the attacker remotely. This would allow them to execute actions that are typically reserved for more privileged users, potentially leading to complete system compromise or data leakage.

Conceptual Example Code

The following is a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability:

POST /vulnerable/driver_endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "malicious_packet": "arbitrary_data_designed_to_escalate_privilege" }

Here, the attacker disguises the malicious packet as a normal network packet and sends it to the vulnerable driver endpoint. The server, unable to distinguish between legitimate packets and the malicious one due to the missing permission check, processes the packet. This results in an unintended privilege escalation for the attacker.

Mitigation Guidance

The primary mitigation strategy for this vulnerability is to apply the vendor patch identified as WCNCR00413202. This patch has been specifically developed to address the missing permission check that allows the privilege escalation. If, for any reason, the patch cannot be immediately applied, it is recommended to use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) as temporary mitigation. However, these are not long-term solutions and the patch should be applied as soon as possible in order to fully mitigate the vulnerability.