CVE-2025-37744 wifi: ath12k: fix memory leak in ath12k_pci_remove()
A memory leak in the ath12k WiFi driver can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service when the device is removed after a QMI failure.
- 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-2025-37744?
CVE-2025-37744 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 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: ath12k: fix memory leak in ath12k_pci_remove()
Kmemleak reported this error:
unreferenced object 0xffff1c165cec3060 (size 32): comm "insmod", pid 560, jiffies 4296964570 (age 235.596s) backtrace: [<000000005434db68>] __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x1f4/0x2c0 [<000000001203b155>] kmalloc_trace+0x40/0x88 [<0000000028adc9c8>] _request_firmware+0xb8/0x608 [<00000000cad1aef7>] firmware_request_nowarn+0x50/0x80 [<000000005011a682>] local_pci_probe+0x48/0xd0 [<00000000077cd295>] pci_device_probe+0xb4/0x200 [<0000000087184c94>] really_probe+0x150/0x2c0
The firmware memory was allocated in ath12k_pci_probe(), but not freed in ath12k_pci_remove() in case ATH12K_FLAG_QMI_FAIL bit is set. So call ath12k_fw_unmap() to free the memory.
Tested-on: WCN7850 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HMT.2.0-02280-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-1
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37744?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-37744?
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-2025-37744 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37744 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-37744, GHSA-xffq-295c-gmg5, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-37744, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-37744, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-37744.