Linux Kernel up to 7.1.7/7.2-rc5 mac80211 ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 7.1.7/7.2-rc5. Affected by this issue is the function ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb of the component mac80211. This manipulation causes use after free. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2026-74489. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.1.7/7.2-rc5. Affected by this vulnerability is the function ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb of the component mac80211. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: fix tid_tx use-after-free on BA session stop ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb() hands tid_tx to kfree_rcu() through ieee80211_remove_tid_tx(), and then reads tid_tx->ndp after dropping sta->lock: ieee80211_remove_tid_tx(sta, tid); /* kfree_rcu(tid_tx, rcu_head) */ ... spin_unlock_bh(&sta->lock); if (start_txq) ieee80211_agg_start_txq(sta, tid, false); if (send_delba) ieee80211_send_delba(..., tid_tx->ndp); That read is not covered by an RCU read-side critical section, and it runs in preemptible process context: both callers hold the wiphy mutex, reaching it either from the ieee80211_ba_session_work() wiphy work or from ieee80211_sta_tear_down_BA_sessions() during station teardown. Softirqs can run in that window too, both from the local_bh_enable() that ends ieee80211_agg_start_txq() and from any interrupt exit, so the RCU callback can free tid_tx before the read. Driving the function from a test module with the grace period forced into that window, KASAN reports the read, and the free arrives on the ordinary RCU softirq path: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb+0x3cd/0x400 Read of size 1 at addr ffff888002b9f52e by task kworker/0:1/10 [...] Freed by task 57: __kasan_slab_free+0x47/0x70 __rcu_free_sheaf_prepare+0x70/0x250 rcu_free_sheaf_nobarn+0x18/0x40 rcu_core+0x426/0x1310 handle_softirqs+0x144/0x590 __irq_exit_rcu+0xea/0x150 irq_exit_rcu+0x9/0x20 sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x6b/0x80 asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x1a/0x20 send_delba is only set when tx_stop is set, which happens for AGG_STOP_LOCAL_REQUEST alone, so this is reached on local teardown - session idle timeout, PTK rekey, suspend, HW reconfig - and not from a peer's DELBA. Read ndp into a local before the session is freed, while sta->lock is still held. tid_tx->ndp has a single writer, in ieee80211_tx_ba_session_handle_start(), which cannot run concurrently here: both paths are serialised by the wiphy mutex, and the session is already marked HT_AGG_STATE_STOPPING at this point. tid_tx->ndp is also the only tid_tx dereference left after ieee80211_remove_tid_tx() in this function. [move/change the comment a bit to be more general not just on ndp, initialize ndp directly]

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-74489 since 08/15/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/15/2026).

Upgrading to version 7.1.8 or 7.2-rc6 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 09fc36eec7841cdf732f4db39855e0c73bd075cc/2f067f5a450ea07efd249142a11d940a068fe29c is able to eliminate this problem.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 7.1.0
• 7.1.1
• 7.1.2
• 7.1.3
• 7.1.4
• 7.1.5
• 7.1.6
• 7.1.7
• 7.2-rc1
• 7.2-rc2
• 7.2-rc3
• 7.2-rc4
• 7.2-rc5

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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