CVE-2026-74408 wifi: ath9k: fix OOB access from firmware tx status queue ID
Out-of-bounds access in the ath9k Wi-Fi driver allows attackers to cause memory corruption, potentially leading to code execution or system crashes.
- 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-2026-74408?
CVE-2026-74408 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 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: ath9k: fix OOB access from firmware tx status queue ID
ath_tx_edma_tasklet() accesses sc->tx.txq[ts.qid] where ts.qid is a 4-bit hardware field (0-15), but the txq array only has ATH9K_NUM_TX_QUEUES (10) entries. A qid >= 10 causes an OOB array access.
Add a bounds check on ts.qid before using it as an array index.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74408?
How do I fix CVE-2026-74408?
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-2026-74408 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74408 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-74408, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74408, GHSA-6hv7-5h9p-9jrw, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74408.