Severity by source
AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Race condition requires local reboot control concurrent with firmware crash; impact is kernel panic only - no confidentiality or integrity loss supported by description.
Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).
CVSS VectorVendor: Linux
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Lifecycle Timeline
5DescriptionCVE.org
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
wifi: ath11k: cancel SSR work items during PCI shutdown
A reboot can crash the kernel if it overlaps with WLAN firmware crash recovery (SSR). The crash is a NULL pointer dereference in the MHI teardown path while freeing DMA-backed MHI contexts.
Simplified trace: dma_free_attrs mhi_deinit_dev_ctxt [mhi] ath11k_pci_power_down [ath11k_pci] ath11k_pci_shutdown [ath11k_pci] device_shutdown kernel_restart
On the host side, SSR is driven by the MHI RDDM callback, which queues reset_work to perform device recovery. reset_work power-cycles the device by calling ath11k_hif_power_down() followed by ath11k_hif_power_up(). The power-down phase deinitializes MHI and frees DMA resources.
Shutdown/reboot runs fully asynchronously with this RDDM-driven SSR recovery flow. As a result, the shutdown path (ath11k_pci_shutdown() -> ath11k_pci_power_down()) can race with the SSR recovery sequence.
Fix this by canceling SSR-related work items during PCI shutdown, marking the device as unregistering, and serializing the RDDM callback path that checks and queues reset_work. This ensures that no new SSR recovery work can be queued once teardown has started, and that any in-flight recovery work is fully synchronized before device power-down, preventing MHI teardown and DMA resource freeing from running more than once.
Note: This issue only affects PCI/MHI-based devices. AHB-based ath11k devices do not queue reset_work in normal SSR flows.
Tested-on: WCN6855 hw2.1 PCI WLAN.HSP.1.1-04866.5-QCAHSPSWPL_V1_V2_SILICONZ_IOE-1
AnalysisAI
Kernel panic via NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's ath11k PCI WiFi driver affects systems running kernel versions from 5.19 through pre-7.1.5/7.2-rc1 with Qualcomm PCI-attached WiFi chipsets such as WCN6855. The race condition occurs when a system reboot overlaps with WLAN firmware crash recovery (Subsystem Reset, SSR), causing the MHI teardown path and SSR recovery path to simultaneously attempt to deinitialize MHI and free DMA-backed contexts, resulting in a double-free scenario and kernel crash. …
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Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata
Vulnerability AssessmentAI
| Exploitation | Exploitation requires a Linux system equipped with a Qualcomm PCI-attached WiFi chipset using the ath11k_pci driver (confirmed affected hardware: WCN6855 hw2.1 PCI), running kernel versions from 5.19 up to but not including 7.1.5 or 7.2-rc1. … Additional conditions and limiting factors are described in the full assessment. |
| Risk Assessment | The vendor-assigned CVSS score of 8.8 (AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/C:H/I:H/A:H) is likely materially overstated for this vulnerability. … Full risk analysis with EPSS, KEV, and SSVC signal comparison available after sign-in. |
| Exploit Scenario | A system experiences a spontaneous WLAN firmware crash on its Qualcomm ath11k PCI WiFi chipset, triggering the MHI RDDM callback and queuing SSR reset_work for device recovery. Concurrently, an administrator initiates a system reboot (or a scheduled reboot fires), and the kernel's ath11k_pci_shutdown path begins tearing down MHI and freeing DMA contexts before the SSR reset_work has completed, producing a NULL pointer dereference in mhi_deinit_dev_ctxt() and a full kernel panic. … |
| Remediation | The primary fix is upgrading to Linux kernel 7.1.5 or 7.2-rc1 (or any later release), which include the synchronization fixes at commits 53dd29e8aeb2a1b5f079178551836b85fc6b53df and 8c79aac429b583301f387374ff37c59be671df87, available from the Linux stable tree at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/53dd29e8aeb2a1b5f079178551836b85fc6b53df and https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8c79aac429b583301f387374ff37c59be671df87. … Detailed patch versions, workarounds, and compensating controls in full report. |
Recommended ActionAI
Within 24 hours: Identify all Linux systems running kernel versions 5.19 through 7.1.4 with ath11k Qualcomm WiFi drivers and categorize by criticality. …
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Same technique Denial Of Service
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-59554
GHSA-r6wh-wch9-fxjr