CVE-2022-23088
Published: 15 February 2024
Summary
CVE-2022-23088 is a critical-severity Code Injection (CWE-94) vulnerability in Freebsd Freebsd. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked in the top 13.6% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
The vulnerability is a missing length validation in FreeBSD's 802.11 beacon handling routine for IEEE 802.11s Mesh ID elements. When processing incoming beacons, the code copies the Mesh ID into a heap buffer without checking its declared length, affecting the Wi-Fi stack on FreeBSD systems while a client interface is in scanning mode and not associated with any SSID.
An unauthenticated remote attacker within radio range can transmit a crafted beacon frame containing an oversized Mesh ID. This allows the attacker to overwrite adjacent kernel heap memory on the victim client, resulting in remote code execution with CVSS 9.8 severity.
The referenced FreeBSD-SA-22:07.wifi_meshid advisory describes the issue and directs administrators to apply the corresponding patched releases or workarounds that disable 802.11s mesh support or scanning as appropriate.
EPSS for the CVE rose from lower values to a peak of 0.0785 on 2025-12-11 before receding to the current 0.0277, indicating a period of increased exploitation interest after public disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2022-28193
Vulnerability details
The 802.11 beacon handling routine failed to validate the length of an IEEE 802.11s Mesh ID before copying it to a heap-allocated buffer. While a FreeBSD Wi-Fi client is in scanning mode (i.e., not associated with a SSID) a malicious…
more
beacon frame may overwrite kernel memory, leading to remote code execution.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Makes persistent code injection into loaded programs impossible when the executable image itself resides on hardware-protected read-only media.
Dynamically generated code can be produced and executed inside the isolated chamber, preventing host compromise from code-injection payloads.
Validates inputs used in dynamic code generation to block injected directives.
Directly prevents execution of attacker-supplied code written into data memory regions.