CVE-2024-53191 wifi: ath12k: fix warning when unbinding
A double-free vulnerability in the ath12k WiFi driver can cause a kernel warning and potential denial of service during device unbinding.
- 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
What is CVE-2024-53191?
CVE-2024-53191 is a high-severity use after free 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 warning when unbinding
If there is an error during some initialization related to firmware, the buffers dp->tx_ring[i].tx_status are released. However this is released again when the device is unbinded (ath12k_pci), and we get: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 2098 at mm/slub.c:4689 free_large_kmalloc+0x4d/0x80 Call Trace: free_large_kmalloc 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 the buffers to NULL after releasing in order to avoid the double free.
Weakness: CWE-415
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-53191?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2024-53191?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2024-53191 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-53191 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-53191, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-53191, GHSA-96q6-8hjq-2q63, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-53191.