CVE-2022-49523 ath11k: disable spectral scan during spectral deinit
A null pointer dereference in the ath11k Wi-Fi driver causes a kernel crash when removing the module with spectral scan enabled.
- 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-2022-49523?
CVE-2022-49523 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: disable spectral scan during spectral deinit
When ath11k modules are removed using rmmod with spectral scan enabled, crash is observed. Different crash trace is observed for each crash.
Send spectral scan disable WMI command to firmware before cleaning the spectral dbring in the spectral_deinit API to avoid this crash.
call trace from one of the crash observed: [ 1252.880802] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000008 [ 1252.882722] pgd = 0f42e886 [ 1252.890955] [00000008] *pgd=00000000 [ 1252.893478] Internal error: Oops: 5 [#1] PREEMPT SMP ARM [ 1253.093035] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.4.89 #0 [ 1253.115261] Hardware name: Generic DT based system [ 1253.121149] PC is at ath11k_spectral_process_data+0x434/0x574 [ath11k] [ 1253.125940] LR is at 0x88e31017 [ 1253.132448] pc : [<7f9387b8>] lr : [<88e31017>] psr: a0000193 [ 1253.135488] sp : 80d01bc8 ip : 00000001 fp : 970e0000 [ 1253.141737] r10: 88e31000 r9 : 970ec000 r8 : 00000080 [ 1253.146946] r7 : 94734040 r6 : a0000113 r5 : 00000057 r4 : 00000000 [ 1253.152159] r3 : e18cb694 r2 : 00000217 r1 : 1df1f000 r0 : 00000001 [ 1253.158755] Flags: NzCv IRQs off FIQs on Mode SVC_32 ISA ARM Segment user [ 1253.165266] Control: 10c0383d Table: 5e71006a DAC: 00000055 [ 1253.172472] Process swapper/0 (pid: 0, stack limit = 0x60870141) [ 1253.458055] [<7f9387b8>] (ath11k_spectral_process_data [ath11k]) from [<7f917fdc>] (ath11k_dbring_buffer_release_event+0x214/0x2e4 [ath11k]) [ 1253.466139] [<7f917fdc>] (ath11k_dbring_buffer_release_event [ath11k]) from [<7f8ea3c4>] (ath11k_wmi_tlv_op_rx+0x1840/0x29cc [ath11k]) [ 1253.478807] [<7f8ea3c4>] (ath11k_wmi_tlv_op_rx [ath11k]) from [<7f8fe868>] (ath11k_htc_rx_completion_handler+0x180/0x4e0 [ath11k]) [ 1253.490699] [<7f8fe868>] (ath11k_htc_rx_completion_handler [ath11k]) from [<7f91308c>] (ath11k_ce_per_engine_service+0x2c4/0x3b4 [ath11k]) [ 1253.502386] [<7f91308c>] (ath11k_ce_per_engine_service [ath11k]) from [<7f9a4198>] (ath11k_pci_ce_tasklet+0x28/0x80 [ath11k_pci]) [ 1253.514811] [<7f9a4198>] (ath11k_pci_ce_tasklet [ath11k_pci]) from [<8032227c>] (tasklet_action_common.constprop.2+0x64/0xe8) [ 1253.526476] [<8032227c>] (tasklet_action_common.constprop.2) from [<803021e8>] (__do_softirq+0x130/0x2d0) [ 1253.537756] [<803021e8>] (__do_softirq) from [<80322610>] (irq_exit+0xcc/0xe8) [ 1253.547304] [<80322610>] (irq_exit) from [<8036a4a4>] (__handle_domain_irq+0x60/0xb4) [ 1253.554428] [<8036a4a4>] (__handle_domain_irq) from [<805eb348>] (gic_handle_irq+0x4c/0x90) [ 1253.562321] [<805eb348>] (gic_handle_irq) from [<80301a78>] (__irq_svc+0x58/0x8c)
Tested-on: QCN6122 hw1.0 AHB WLAN.HK.2.6.0.1-00851-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49523?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-49523?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2022-49523 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49523 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49523, GHSA-4hqj-96cj-gmwp, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49523.