# CVE-2024-46760: wifi: rtw88: usb: schedule rx work after everything is set up

> A race condition in the rtw88 USB WiFi driver causes a NULL pointer dereference, leading to a kernel crash and denial of service.

- **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:** 18 Sep 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-49557, BELL-CVE-2024-46760, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-46760, GHSA-6vq9-c7rm-r447, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2024-46760, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2024-46760, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-46760

## What is CVE-2024-46760?

CVE-2024-46760 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Sep 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: rtw88: usb: schedule rx work after everything is set up

Right now it's possible to hit NULL pointer dereference in
rtw_rx_fill_rx_status on hw object and/or its fields because
initialization routine can start getting USB replies before
rtw_dev is fully setup.

The stack trace looks like this:

rtw_rx_fill_rx_status
rtw8821c_query_rx_desc
rtw_usb_rx_handler
...
queue_work
rtw_usb_read_port_complete
...
usb_submit_urb
rtw_usb_rx_resubmit
rtw_usb_init_rx
rtw_usb_probe

So while we do the async stuff rtw_usb_probe continues and calls
rtw_register_hw, which does all kinds of initialization (e.g.
via ieee80211_register_hw) that rtw_rx_fill_rx_status relies on.

Fix this by moving the first usb_submit_urb after everything
is set up.

For me, this bug manifested as:
[    8.893177] rtw_8821cu 1-1:1.2: band wrong, packet dropped
[    8.910904] rtw_8821cu 1-1:1.2: hw->conf.chandef.chan NULL in rtw_rx_fill_rx_status
because I'm using Larry's backport of rtw88 driver with the NULL
checks in rtw_rx_fill_rx_status.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-46760?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-46760?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-46760 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-46760 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-2024-46760 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-46760 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Sep 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-2024-46760 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-2024-46760/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46760/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-46760
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-46760
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-46760

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46760/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.