Linux Kernel ath12k ath12k_wifi7_dp_rx_h_verify_tkip_mic memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, was found in Linux Kernel. Affected by this issue is the function ath12k_wifi7_dp_rx_h_verify_tkip_mic of the component ath12k. The manipulation results in memory leak. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2026-74368. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel (affected version not known). It has been classified as very critical. Affected is the function ath12k_wifi7_dp_rx_h_verify_tkip_mic of the component ath12k. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath12k: fix memory leak in ath12k_wifi7_dp_rx_h_verify_tkip_mic() In ath12k_wifi7_dp_rx_h_verify_tkip_mic(), the call to ath12k_dp_rx_check_nwifi_hdr_len_valid() may return false when the NWIFI header length is invalid, causing the function to abort early with -EINVAL. When this happens, the error propagates to ath12k_wifi7_dp_rx_h_defrag(), which clears first_frag by setting it to NULL. As a result, the corresponding MSDU is no longer referenced by the defragmentation path and is never freed. This leads to a memory leak for the affected MSDU on this error path. Proper cleanup is required to ensure the MSDU is released when header validation fails during TKIP MIC verification. Tested-on: WCN7850 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HMT.1.1.c5-00302-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-1.115823.3

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-74368 since 08/15/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploitation doesn't require any form of authentication. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 08/15/2026). The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1499.

Applying the patch 5187a92099778501f21af76ed6c8415d128e7298/98d4f92ab6a1af2ea2ab590d7e2801b203110981 is able to eliminate this problem.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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