CVE-2022-49130 ath11k: mhi: use mhi_sync_power_up()

Medium 5.5 Published 26 Feb 2025 Updated 12 Aug 2026

A missing firmware file causes a null pointer dereference crash in the ath11k kernel driver during module removal, leading to denial of service.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2022-49130?

CVE-2022-49130 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 26 Feb 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ath11k: mhi: use mhi_sync_power_up()

If amss.bin was missing ath11k would crash during 'rmmod ath11k_pci'. The reason for that was that we were using mhi_async_power_up() which does not check any errors. But mhi_sync_power_up() on the other hand does check for errors so let's use that to fix the crash.

I was not able to find a reason why an async version was used. ath11k_mhi_start() (which enables state ATH11K_MHI_POWER_ON) is called from ath11k_hif_power_up(), which can sleep. So sync version should be safe to use here.

[ 145.569731] general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP DEBUG_PAGEALLOC KASAN PTI [ 145.569789] KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] [ 145.569843] CPU: 2 PID: 1628 Comm: rmmod Kdump: loaded Tainted: G W 5.16.0-wt-ath+ #567 [ 145.569898] Hardware name: Intel(R) Client Systems NUC8i7HVK/NUC8i7HVB, BIOS HNKBLi70.86A.0067.2021.0528.1339 05/28/2021 [ 145.569956] RIP: 0010:ath11k_hal_srng_access_begin+0xb5/0x2b0 [ath11k] [ 145.570028] Code: df 48 89 fa 48 c1 ea 03 80 3c 02 00 0f 85 ec 01 00 00 48 8b ab a8 00 00 00 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 fc ff df 48 89 ea 48 c1 ea 03 <0f> b6 14 02 48 89 e8 83 e0 07 83 c0 03 45 85 ed 75 48 38 d0 7c 08 [ 145.570089] RSP: 0018:ffffc900025d7ac0 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 145.570144] RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: ffff88814fca2dd8 RCX: 1ffffffff50cb455 [ 145.570196] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff88814fca2dd8 RDI: ffff88814fca2e80 [ 145.570252] RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffffffa8659497 [ 145.570329] R10: fffffbfff50cb292 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff88814fca0000 [ 145.570410] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff88814fca2798 R15: ffff88814fca2dd8 [ 145.570465] FS: 00007fa399988540(0000) GS:ffff888233e00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 145.570519] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 145.570571] CR2: 00007fa399b51421 CR3: 0000000137898002 CR4: 00000000003706e0 [ 145.570623] Call Trace: [ 145.570675] <TASK> [ 145.570727] ? ath11k_ce_tx_process_cb+0x34b/0x860 [ath11k] [ 145.570797] ath11k_ce_tx_process_cb+0x356/0x860 [ath11k] [ 145.570864] ? tasklet_init+0x150/0x150 [ 145.570919] ? ath11k_ce_alloc_pipes+0x280/0x280 [ath11k] [ 145.570986] ? tasklet_clear_sched+0x42/0xe0 [ 145.571042] ? tasklet_kill+0xe9/0x1b0 [ 145.571095] ? tasklet_clear_sched+0xe0/0xe0 [ 145.571148] ? irq_has_action+0x120/0x120 [ 145.571202] ath11k_ce_cleanup_pipes+0x45a/0x580 [ath11k] [ 145.571270] ? ath11k_pci_stop+0x10e/0x170 [ath11k_pci] [ 145.571345] ath11k_core_stop+0x8a/0xc0 [ath11k] [ 145.571434] ath11k_core_deinit+0x9e/0x150 [ath11k] [ 145.571499] ath11k_pci_remove+0xd2/0x260 [ath11k_pci] [ 145.571553] pci_device_remove+0x9a/0x1c0 [ 145.571605] __device_release_driver+0x332/0x660 [ 145.571659] driver_detach+0x1e7/0x2c0 [ 145.571712] bus_remove_driver+0xe2/0x2d0 [ 145.571772] pci_unregister_driver+0x21/0x250 [ 145.571826] __do_sys_delete_module+0x30a/0x4b0 [ 145.571879] ? free_module+0xac0/0xac0 [ 145.571933] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare.part.0+0x18c/0x370 [ 145.571986] ? syscall_enter_from_user_mode+0x1d/0x50 [ 145.572039] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on+0x79/0x100 [ 145.572097] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [ 145.572153] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

Tested-on: WCN6855 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HSP.1.1-03003-QCAHSPSWPL_V1_V2_SILICONZ_LITE-2

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49130?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-49130?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2022-49130 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49130 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49130, GHSA-fjq8-jwg4-jxfg, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49130.