CVE-2022-49238 ath11k: free peer for station when disconnect from AP for QCA6390/WCN6855
A use-after-free vulnerability in the ath11k Wi-Fi driver allows attackers to cause a system crash or potentially execute arbitrary code.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2022-49238?
CVE-2022-49238 is a high-severity use after free 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: free peer for station when disconnect from AP for QCA6390/WCN6855
Commit b4a0f54156ac ("ath11k: move peer delete after vdev stop of station for QCA6390 and WCN6855") is to fix firmware crash by changing the WMI command sequence, but actually skip all the peer delete operation, then it lead commit 58595c9874c6 ("ath11k: Fixing dangling pointer issue upon peer delete failure") not take effect, and then happened a use-after-free warning from KASAN. because the peer->sta is not set to NULL and then used later.
Change to only skip the WMI_PEER_DELETE_CMDID for QCA6390/WCN6855.
log of user-after-free:
[ 534.888665] BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in ath11k_dp_rx_update_peer_stats+0x912/0xc10 [ath11k] [ 534.888696] Read of size 8 at addr ffff8881396bb1b8 by task rtcwake/2860
[ 534.888705] CPU: 4 PID: 2860 Comm: rtcwake Kdump: loaded Tainted: G W 5.15.0-wt-ath+ #523 [ 534.888712] Hardware name: Intel(R) Client Systems NUC8i7HVK/NUC8i7HVB, BIOS HNKBLi70.86A.0067.2021.0528.1339 05/28/2021 [ 534.888716] Call Trace: [ 534.888720] <IRQ> [ 534.888726] dump_stack_lvl+0x57/0x7d [ 534.888736] print_address_description.constprop.0+0x1f/0x170 [ 534.888745] ? ath11k_dp_rx_update_peer_stats+0x912/0xc10 [ath11k] [ 534.888771] kasan_report.cold+0x83/0xdf [ 534.888783] ? ath11k_dp_rx_update_peer_stats+0x912/0xc10 [ath11k] [ 534.888810] ath11k_dp_rx_update_peer_stats+0x912/0xc10 [ath11k] [ 534.888840] ath11k_dp_rx_process_mon_status+0x529/0xa70 [ath11k] [ 534.888874] ? ath11k_dp_rx_mon_status_bufs_replenish+0x3f0/0x3f0 [ath11k] [ 534.888897] ? check_prev_add+0x20f0/0x20f0 [ 534.888922] ? __lock_acquire+0xb72/0x1870 [ 534.888937] ? find_held_lock+0x33/0x110 [ 534.888954] ath11k_dp_rx_process_mon_rings+0x297/0x520 [ath11k] [ 534.888981] ? rcu_read_unlock+0x40/0x40 [ 534.888990] ? ath11k_dp_rx_pdev_alloc+0xd90/0xd90 [ath11k] [ 534.889026] ath11k_dp_service_mon_ring+0x67/0xe0 [ath11k] [ 534.889053] ? ath11k_dp_rx_process_mon_rings+0x520/0x520 [ath11k] [ 534.889075] call_timer_fn+0x167/0x4a0 [ 534.889084] ? add_timer_on+0x3b0/0x3b0 [ 534.889103] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare.part.0+0x18c/0x370 [ 534.889117] __run_timers.part.0+0x539/0x8b0 [ 534.889123] ? ath11k_dp_rx_process_mon_rings+0x520/0x520 [ath11k] [ 534.889157] ? call_timer_fn+0x4a0/0x4a0 [ 534.889164] ? mark_lock_irq+0x1c30/0x1c30 [ 534.889173] ? clockevents_program_event+0xdd/0x280 [ 534.889189] ? mark_held_locks+0xa5/0xe0 [ 534.889203] run_timer_softirq+0x97/0x180 [ 534.889213] __do_softirq+0x276/0x86a [ 534.889230] __irq_exit_rcu+0x11c/0x180 [ 534.889238] irq_exit_rcu+0x5/0x20 [ 534.889244] sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x8e/0xc0 [ 534.889251] </IRQ> [ 534.889254] <TASK> [ 534.889259] asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x12/0x20 [ 534.889265] RIP: 0010:_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x38/0x70 [ 534.889271] Code: 74 24 10 e8 ea c2 bf fd 48 89 ef e8 12 53 c0 fd 81 e3 00 02 00 00 75 25 9c 58 f6 c4 02 75 2d 48 85 db 74 01 fb bf 01 00 00 00 <e8> 13 a7 b5 fd 65 8b 05 cc d9 9c 5e 85 c0 74 0a 5b 5d c3 e8 a0 ee [ 534.889276] RSP: 0018:ffffc90002e5f880 EFLAGS: 00000206 [ 534.889284] RAX: 0000000000000006 RBX: 0000000000000200 RCX: ffffffff9f256f10 [ 534.889289] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffffffa1c6e420 RDI: 0000000000000001 [ 534.889293] RBP: ffff8881095e6200 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: ffffffffa40d2b8f [ 534.889298] R10: fffffbfff481a571 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff8881095e6e68 [ 534.889302] R13: ffffc90002e5f908 R14: 0000000000000246 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 534.889316] ? mark_lock+0xd0/0x14a0 [ 534.889332] klist_next+0x1d4/0x450 [ 534.889340] ? dpm_wait_for_subordinate+0x2d0/0x2d0 [ 534.889350] device_for_each_child+0xa8/0x140 [ 534.889360] ? device_remove_class_symlinks+0x1b0/0x1b0 [ 534.889370] ? __lock_release+0x4bd/0x9f0 [ 534.889378] ? dpm_suspend+0x26b/0x3f0 [ 534.889390] dpm_wait_for_subordinate+ ---truncated---
Weakness: CWE-416
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49238?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-49238?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2022-49238 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49238 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49238, GHSA-xqq8-xc8f-f7c4, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49238.