Realtek RTL8811AU 1030.38.712.2019 rtwlanu.sys N6CSet_DOT11_CIPHER_DEFAULT_KEY heap-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in Realtek RTL8811AU 1030.38.712.2019. Affected by this issue is the function N6CSet_DOT11_CIPHER_DEFAULT_KEY in the library rtwlanu.sys. Executing a manipulation can lead to heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-8301. It is possible to launch the attack on the local host. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Realtek RTL8811AU 1030.38.712.2019. This vulnerability affects the function N6CSet_DOT11_CIPHER_DEFAULT_KEY in the library rtwlanu.sys. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

Realtek RTL8811AU rtwlanu.sys N6CSet_DOT11_CIPHER_DEFAULT_KEY Heap-based Buffer Overflow Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of Realtek RTL8811AU drivers. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the N6CSet_DOT11_CIPHER_DEFAULT_KEY function. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of the length of user-supplied data prior to copying it to a fixed-length heap-based buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-24786.

The advisory is available at zerodayinitiative.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-8301 since 07/29/2025. The exploitation appears to be easy. Local access is required to approach this attack. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/03/2025).

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• Realtek

Name

• RTL8811AU

Version

• 1030.38.712.2019

License

• commercial

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