CVE-2026-53258 wifi: fix leak if split 6 GHz scanning fails
A memory leak in the Linux kernel Wi-Fi subsystem allows local attackers to exhaust system memory, causing denial of service.
- 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-2026-53258?
CVE-2026-53258 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Jun 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: fix leak if split 6 GHz scanning fails
rdev->int_scan_req is leaked if cfg80211_scan() fails. Note that it's supposed to be released at ___cfg80211_scan_done() but this doesn't happen as rdev->scan_req is NULL at that point, too, leading to the early return from the freeing function.
unreferenced object 0xffff8881161d0800 (size 512): comm "wpa_supplicant", pid 379, jiffies 4294749765 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 f0 81 13 16 81 88 ff ff ................ backtrace (crc c867fdb6): kmemleak_alloc+0x89/0x90 __kmalloc_noprof+0x2fd/0x410 cfg80211_scan+0x133/0x730 nl80211_trigger_scan+0xc69/0x1cc0 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x204/0x2f0 genl_rcv_msg+0x431/0x6b0 netlink_rcv_skb+0x143/0x3f0 genl_rcv+0x27/0x40 netlink_unicast+0x4f6/0x820 netlink_sendmsg+0x797/0xce0 __sock_sendmsg+0xc4/0x160 ____sys_sendmsg+0x5e4/0x890 ___sys_sendmsg+0xf8/0x180 __sys_sendmsg+0x136/0x1e0 __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x76/0xc0 x64_sys_call+0x13f0/0x17d0
Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org).
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53258?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-53258?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-53258 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53258 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as AZL-90396, BELL-CVE-2026-53258, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53258, GHSA-pw6x-273j-mp83, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-53258, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-53258 and 4 more.