Linux Kernel wlcore main.c wl12xx_queue_recovery_work denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel and classified as critical. The impacted element is the function wl12xx_queue_recovery_work of the file drivers/net/wireless/ti/wlcore/main.c of the component wlcore. Executing a manipulation can lead to denial of service. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2026-80641. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel (the affected version is unknown). This vulnerability affects the function wl12xx_queue_recovery_work of the file drivers/net/wireless/ti/wlcore/main.c of the component wlcore. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: wlcore: enable the right set of ciphers The firmware version number check for IGTK introduced in commit c34dbc5900b0 ("wifi: wlcore: Add support for IGTK key") lets the amount of ciphers decrease on every boot of a too old firmware and that is practically happening. It also does not take into account other chips than the wl18xx. On some wl128x, the following can be observed when connecting via nm to a common ap: [ 484.113311] wlcore: WARNING could not set keys [ 484.117828] wlcore: ERROR Could not add or replace key [ 484.123016] wlan0: failed to set key (5, ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) to hardware (-5) [ 484.123046] wlcore: Hardware recovery in progress. FW ver: Rev 7.3.10.0.142 [ 484.139923] wlcore: pc: 0x0, hint_sts: 0x00000048 count: 1 [ 484.145721] wlcore: down [ 484.148986] ieee80211 phy0: Hardware restart was requested [ 484.610473] wlcore: firmware booted (Rev 7.3.10.0.142) [ 484.633758] wlcore: Association completed. [ 484.690490] wlcore: ERROR command execute failure 14 [ 484.690490] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 484.700195] WARNING: drivers/net/wireless/ti/wlcore/main.c:872 at wl12xx_queue_recovery_work+0x64/0x74 [wlcore], CPU#0: kworker/0:0/892 This repeats endlessly. Always disable IGTK on wl12xx and fix the decrementing mess.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-80641 since 08/26/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be initiated remotely. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. 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 08/28/2026). The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1499.

Applying the patch ff9748200698e9641f41ba922ffef728167807c2 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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