CVE-2024-53188 wifi: ath12k: fix crash when unbinding

What is CVE-2024-53188?

CVE-2024-53188 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Dec 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: ath12k: fix crash when unbinding

If there is an error during some initialization related to firmware, the function ath12k_dp_cc_cleanup is called to release resources. However this is released again when the device is unbinded (ath12k_pci), and we get: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000020 at RIP: 0010:ath12k_dp_cc_cleanup.part.0+0xb6/0x500 [ath12k] Call Trace: ath12k_dp_cc_cleanup ath12k_dp_free ath12k_core_deinit ath12k_pci_remove ...

The issue is always reproducible from a VM because the MSI addressing initialization is failing.

In order to fix the issue, just set to NULL the released structure in ath12k_dp_cc_cleanup at the end.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-53188?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-53188?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-53188 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-53188 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-55631, BELL-CVE-2024-53188, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-53188, GHSA-fpcp-87j2-pf32, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-53188.