Linux Kernel ath11k ath11k_pci_shutdown null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel. The affected element is the function ath11k_pci_shutdown of the component ath11k. Performing a manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-74407. The attack needs to be approached locally. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel (affected version unknown). It has been classified as critical. This affects the function ath11k_pci_shutdown of the component ath11k. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath11k: cancel SSR work items during PCI shutdown A reboot can crash the kernel if it overlaps with WLAN firmware crash recovery (SSR). The crash is a NULL pointer dereference in the MHI teardown path while freeing DMA-backed MHI contexts. Simplified trace: dma_free_attrs mhi_deinit_dev_ctxt [mhi] ath11k_pci_power_down [ath11k_pci] ath11k_pci_shutdown [ath11k_pci] device_shutdown kernel_restart On the host side, SSR is driven by the MHI RDDM callback, which queues reset_work to perform device recovery. reset_work power-cycles the device by calling ath11k_hif_power_down() followed by ath11k_hif_power_up(). The power-down phase deinitializes MHI and frees DMA resources. Shutdown/reboot runs fully asynchronously with this RDDM-driven SSR recovery flow. As a result, the shutdown path (ath11k_pci_shutdown() -> ath11k_pci_power_down()) can race with the SSR recovery sequence. Fix this by canceling SSR-related work items during PCI shutdown, marking the device as unregistering, and serializing the RDDM callback path that checks and queues reset_work. This ensures that no new SSR recovery work can be queued once teardown has started, and that any in-flight recovery work is fully synchronized before device power-down, preventing MHI teardown and DMA resource freeing from running more than once. Note: This issue only affects PCI/MHI-based devices. AHB-based ath11k devices do not queue reset_work in normal SSR flows. Tested-on: WCN6855 hw2.1 PCI WLAN.HSP.1.1-04866.5-QCAHSPSWPL_V1_V2_SILICONZ_IOE-1

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-74407 since 08/15/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. Attacking locally is a requirement. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

Applying the patch 53dd29e8aeb2a1b5f079178551836b85fc6b53df 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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