CVE-2026-80641 wifi: wlcore: enable the right set of ciphers
A logic error in the wlcore Wi-Fi driver causes endless hardware recovery loops, leading to denial of service for wireless connections.
- 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-2026-80641?
CVE-2026-80641 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 28 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: wlcore: enable the right set of ciphers
The firmware version number check for IGTK introduced in commit c34dbc5900b0 ("wifi: wlcore: Add support for IGTK key")
lets the amount of ciphers decrease on every boot of a too old firmware and that is practically happening. It also does not take into account other chips than the wl18xx. On some wl128x, the following can be observed when connecting via nm to a common ap:
[ 484.113311] wlcore: WARNING could not set keys [ 484.117828] wlcore: ERROR Could not add or replace key [ 484.123016] wlan0: failed to set key (5, ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) to hardware (-5) [ 484.123046] wlcore: Hardware recovery in progress. FW ver: Rev 7.3.10.0.142 [ 484.139923] wlcore: pc: 0x0, hint_sts: 0x00000048 count: 1 [ 484.145721] wlcore: down [ 484.148986] ieee80211 phy0: Hardware restart was requested [ 484.610473] wlcore: firmware booted (Rev 7.3.10.0.142) [ 484.633758] wlcore: Association completed. [ 484.690490] wlcore: ERROR command execute failure 14 [ 484.690490] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 484.700195] WARNING: drivers/net/wireless/ti/wlcore/main.c:872 at wl12xx_queue_recovery_work+0x64/0x74 [wlcore], CPU#0: kworker/0:0/892
This repeats endlessly. Always disable IGTK on wl12xx and fix the decrementing mess.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-80641?
How do I fix CVE-2026-80641?
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-2026-80641 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-80641 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-80641, GHSA-6gg5-jm4h-xvvc, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-80641.