CVE-2022-50871 wifi: ath11k: Fix qmi_msg_handler data structure initialization
A missing null terminator in the ath11k WiFi driver can cause an infinite loop and out-of-bounds access, leading to a system crash.
- 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-2022-50871?
CVE-2022-50871 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 Dec 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:
wifi: ath11k: Fix qmi_msg_handler data structure initialization
qmi_msg_handler is required to be null terminated by QMI module. There might be a case where a handler for a msg id is not present in the handlers array which can lead to infinite loop while searching the handler and therefore out of bound access in qmi_invoke_handler(). Hence update the initialization in qmi_msg_handler data structure.
Tested-on: IPQ8074 hw2.0 AHB WLAN.HK.2.5.0.1-01100-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50871?
How do I fix CVE-2022-50871?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2022-50871 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50871 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50871, GHSA-hvw4-g8mw-w34v, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50871, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2022-50871, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50871.