CVE-2023-54071 wifi: rtw88: use work to update rate to avoid RCU warning
A bug in the rtw88 WiFi driver causes a kernel warning and potential instability during rate updates, leading to denial of service.
- 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-2023-54071?
CVE-2023-54071 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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: rtw88: use work to update rate to avoid RCU warning
The ieee80211_ops::sta_rc_update must be atomic, because ieee80211_chan_bw_change() holds rcu_read lock while calling drv_sta_rc_update(), so create a work to do original things.
Voluntary context switch within RCU read-side critical section! WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 4621 at kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h:318 rcu_note_context_switch+0x571/0x5d0 CPU: 0 PID: 4621 Comm: kworker/u16:2 Tainted: G W OE Workqueue: phy3 ieee80211_chswitch_work [mac80211] RIP: 0010:rcu_note_context_switch+0x571/0x5d0 Call Trace: <TASK> __schedule+0xb0/0x1460 ? __mod_timer+0x116/0x360 schedule+0x5a/0xc0 schedule_timeout+0x87/0x150 ? trace_raw_output_tick_stop+0x60/0x60 wait_for_completion_timeout+0x7b/0x140 usb_start_wait_urb+0x82/0x160 [usbcore usb_control_msg+0xe3/0x140 [usbcore rtw_usb_read+0x88/0xe0 [rtw_usb rtw_usb_read8+0xf/0x10 [rtw_usb rtw_fw_send_h2c_command+0xa0/0x170 [rtw_core rtw_fw_send_ra_info+0xc9/0xf0 [rtw_core drv_sta_rc_update+0x7c/0x160 [mac80211 ieee80211_chan_bw_change+0xfb/0x110 [mac80211 ieee80211_change_chanctx+0x38/0x130 [mac80211 ieee80211_vif_use_reserved_switch+0x34e/0x900 [mac80211 ieee80211_link_use_reserved_context+0x88/0xe0 [mac80211 ieee80211_chswitch_work+0x95/0x170 [mac80211 process_one_work+0x201/0x410 worker_thread+0x4a/0x3b0 ? process_one_work+0x410/0x410 kthread+0xe1/0x110 ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 </TASK>
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54071?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54071?
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-2023-54071 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54071 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54071, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54071, GHSA-66p3-rgg9-52hr, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-54071, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54071.