# CVE-2026-23130: wifi: ath12k: fix dead lock while flushing management frames

> A race condition in the ath12k WiFi driver causes a deadlock during management frame flushing, leading to a 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:** 14 Feb 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-23130, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23130, GHSA-6mvr-5ch7-jjjq, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23130

## What is CVE-2026-23130?

CVE-2026-23130 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Feb 2026. 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 dead lock while flushing management frames

Commit [1] converted the management transmission work item into a
wiphy work. Since a wiphy work can only run under wiphy lock
protection, a race condition happens in below scenario:

1. a management frame is queued for transmission.
2. ath12k_mac_op_flush() gets called to flush pending frames associated
   with the hardware (i.e, vif being NULL). Then in ath12k_mac_flush()
   the process waits for the transmission done.
3. Since wiphy lock has been taken by the flush process, the transmission
   work item has no chance to run, hence the dead lock.

>From user view, this dead lock results in below issue:

 wlp8s0: authenticate with xxxxxx (local address=xxxxxx)
 wlp8s0: send auth to xxxxxx (try 1/3)
 wlp8s0: authenticate with xxxxxx (local address=xxxxxx)
 wlp8s0: send auth to xxxxxx (try 1/3)
 wlp8s0: authenticated
 wlp8s0: associate with xxxxxx (try 1/3)
 wlp8s0: aborting association with xxxxxx by local choice (Reason: 3=DEAUTH_LEAVING)
 ath12k_pci 0000:08:00.0: failed to flush mgmt transmit queue, mgmt pkts pending 1

The dead lock can be avoided by invoking wiphy_work_flush() to proactively
run the queued work item. Note actually it is already present in
ath12k_mac_op_flush(), however it does not protect the case where vif
being NULL. Hence move it ahead to cover this case as well.

Tested-on: WCN7850 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HMT.1.1.c5-00302-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-1.115823.3

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23130?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23130?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-23130 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23130 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-2026-23130 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23130 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Feb 2026. 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-2026-23130 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-2026-23130/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23130/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23130
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23130
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23130

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23130/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.