CVE-2026-68362 wifi: ath11k: fix NULL pointer dereference in ath11k_hal_srng_access_begin
A NULL pointer dereference in the ath11k Wi-Fi driver causes a kernel crash during firmware restart, leading to denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-68362?
CVE-2026-68362 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 10 Aug 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: ath11k: fix NULL pointer dereference in ath11k_hal_srng_access_begin
In ATH11K_QMI_EVENT_FW_READY, ATH11K_FLAG_REGISTERED is set unconditionally even when ath11k_core_qmi_firmware_ready() fails. This leaves the driver in an inconsistent state where initialization is considered complete although the firmware ready handling did not finish successfully. During the subsequent SSR, the driver enters the restart path based on this incorrect state and dereferences uninitialized srng members, resulting in a NULL pointer dereference.
Call trace: ath11k_hal_srng_access_begin+0xc/0x60 [ath11k] (P) ath11k_ce_cleanup_pipes+0x17c/0x180 [ath11k] ath11k_core_restart+0x40/0x168 [ath11k]
Fix this by: - skipping firmware_ready if ATH11K_FLAG_REGISTERED is already set - setting ATH11K_FLAG_REGISTERED only when firmware_ready succeeds - setting ATH11K_FLAG_QMI_FAIL and aborting the FW_READY handling on error
Tested-on: WCN6750 hw1.0 AHB WLAN.MSL.2.0.c2-00204-QCAMSLSWPLZ-1
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-68362?
How do I fix CVE-2026-68362?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-68362 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-68362 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-68362, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68362, GHSA-2m2r-2qvp-946c, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68362.