CVE-2023-54229 wifi: ath11k: fix registration of 6Ghz-only phy without the full channel range
A typo in the ath11k driver causes WiFi registration failure for specific 6GHz hardware, leading to a denial of service for wireless connectivity.
- 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-2023-54229?
CVE-2023-54229 is a 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 registration of 6Ghz-only phy without the full channel range
Because of what seems to be a typo, a 6Ghz-only phy for which the BDF does not allow the 7115Mhz channel will fail to register:
WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 106 at net/wireless/core.c:907 wiphy_register+0x914/0x954 Modules linked in: ath11k_pci sbsa_gwdt CPU: 2 PID: 106 Comm: kworker/u8:5 Not tainted 6.3.0-rc7-next-20230418-00549-g1e096a17625a-dirty #9 Hardware name: Freebox V7R Board (DT) Workqueue: ath11k_qmi_driver_event ath11k_qmi_driver_event_work pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : wiphy_register+0x914/0x954 lr : ieee80211_register_hw+0x67c/0xc10 sp : ffffff800b123aa0 x29: ffffff800b123aa0 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: 0000000000000000 x26: 0000000000000000 x25: 0000000000000006 x24: ffffffc008d51418 x23: ffffffc008cb0838 x22: ffffff80176c2460 x21: 0000000000000168 x20: ffffff80176c0000 x19: ffffff80176c03e0 x18: 0000000000000014 x17: 00000000cbef338c x16: 00000000d2a26f21 x15: 00000000ad6bb85f x14: 0000000000000020 x13: 0000000000000020 x12: 00000000ffffffbd x11: 0000000000000208 x10: 00000000fffffdf7 x9 : ffffffc009394718 x8 : ffffff80176c0528 x7 : 000000007fffffff x6 : 0000000000000006 x5 : 0000000000000005 x4 : ffffff800b304284 x3 : ffffff800b304284 x2 : ffffff800b304d98 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 0000000000000000 Call trace: wiphy_register+0x914/0x954 ieee80211_register_hw+0x67c/0xc10 ath11k_mac_register+0x7c4/0xe10 ath11k_core_qmi_firmware_ready+0x1f4/0x570 ath11k_qmi_driver_event_work+0x198/0x590 process_one_work+0x1b8/0x328 worker_thread+0x6c/0x414 kthread+0x100/0x104 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- ath11k_pci 0002:01:00.0: ieee80211 registration failed: -22 ath11k_pci 0002:01:00.0: failed register the radio with mac80211: -22 ath11k_pci 0002:01:00.0: failed to create pdev core: -22
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54229?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54229?
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-2023-54229 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54229 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54229, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54229, GHSA-6p8q-gjxv-fgh3, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54229.