# CVE-2024-35938: wifi: ath11k: decrease MHI channel buffer length to 8KB

> A memory allocation failure in the ath11k WiFi driver can cause a denial of service during system resume due to large buffer requests.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 19 May 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-35938, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-35938, GHSA-rcxv-qpp3-h3gc, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2024-35938, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-35938

## What is CVE-2024-35938?

CVE-2024-35938 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 May 2024. 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: decrease MHI channel buffer length to 8KB

Currently buf_len field of ath11k_mhi_config_qca6390 is assigned
with 0, making MHI use a default size, 64KB, to allocate channel
buffers. This is likely to fail in some scenarios where system
memory is highly fragmented and memory compaction or reclaim is
not allowed.

There is a fail report which is caused by it:
kworker/u32:45: page allocation failure: order:4, mode:0x40c00(GFP_NOIO|__GFP_COMP), nodemask=(null),cpuset=/,mems_allowed=0
CPU: 0 PID: 19318 Comm: kworker/u32:45 Not tainted 6.8.0-rc3-1.gae4495f-default #1 openSUSE Tumbleweed (unreleased) 493b6d5b382c603654d7a81fc3c144d59a1dfceb
Workqueue: events_unbound async_run_entry_fn
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 dump_stack_lvl+0x47/0x60
 warn_alloc+0x13a/0x1b0
 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
 ? __alloc_pages_direct_compact+0xab/0x210
 __alloc_pages_slowpath.constprop.0+0xd3e/0xda0
 __alloc_pages+0x32d/0x350
 ? mhi_prepare_channel+0x127/0x2d0 [mhi 40df44e07c05479f7a6e7b90fba9f0e0031a7814]
 __kmalloc_large_node+0x72/0x110
 __kmalloc+0x37c/0x480
 ? mhi_map_single_no_bb+0x77/0xf0 [mhi 40df44e07c05479f7a6e7b90fba9f0e0031a7814]
 ? mhi_prepare_channel+0x127/0x2d0 [mhi 40df44e07c05479f7a6e7b90fba9f0e0031a7814]
 mhi_prepare_channel+0x127/0x2d0 [mhi 40df44e07c05479f7a6e7b90fba9f0e0031a7814]
 __mhi_prepare_for_transfer+0x44/0x80 [mhi 40df44e07c05479f7a6e7b90fba9f0e0031a7814]
 ? __pfx_____mhi_prepare_for_transfer+0x10/0x10 [mhi 40df44e07c05479f7a6e7b90fba9f0e0031a7814]
 device_for_each_child+0x5c/0xa0
 ? __pfx_pci_pm_resume+0x10/0x10
 ath11k_core_resume+0x65/0x100 [ath11k a5094e22d7223135c40d93c8f5321cf09fd85e4e]
 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
 ath11k_pci_pm_resume+0x32/0x60 [ath11k_pci 830b7bfc3ea80ebef32e563cafe2cb55e9cc73ec]
 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
 dpm_run_callback+0x8c/0x1e0
 device_resume+0x104/0x340
 ? __pfx_dpm_watchdog_handler+0x10/0x10
 async_resume+0x1d/0x30
 async_run_entry_fn+0x32/0x120
 process_one_work+0x168/0x330
 worker_thread+0x2f5/0x410
 ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
 kthread+0xe8/0x120
 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
 ret_from_fork+0x34/0x50
 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30
 </TASK>

Actually those buffers are used only by QMI target -> host communication.
And for WCN6855 and QCA6390, the largest packet size for that is less
than 6KB. So change buf_len field to 8KB, which results in order 1
allocation if page size is 4KB. In this way, we can at least save some
memory, and as well as decrease the possibility of allocation failure
in those scenarios.

Tested-on: WCN6855 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HSP.1.1-03125-QCAHSPSWPL_V1_V2_SILICONZ_LITE-3.6510.30

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-35938?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-35938?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-35938 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-35938 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-35938 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-35938 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 May 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-35938 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-35938/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-35938/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-35938
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-35938
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-35938

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-35938/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.