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Linux Kernel ath6kl EUVDEUVD-2026-55454

| CVE-2026-68353 HIGH
2026-08-10 Linux GHSA-2244-8pcv-8jr6
8.1
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Linux
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Severity by source

Vendor (Linux) PRIMARY
8.1 HIGH
AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI
8.1 HIGH

Adjacent vector confirmed by WiFi driver context; no privileges needed; OOB read yields kernel memory disclosure (C:H) and potential panic (A:H) but no write primitive (I:N).

3.1 AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Red Hat
5.5 MEDIUM
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).

CVSS VectorVendor: Linux

Attack Vector
Adjacent
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

5
Analysis Generated
Aug 14, 2026 - 03:02 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Aug 13, 2026 - 23:37 NVD
8.1 (HIGH)
Patch available
Aug 10, 2026 - 14:18 EUVD
CVE Published
Aug 10, 2026 - 12:03 cve.org
HIGH 8.1
CVE Published
Aug 10, 2026 - 12:03 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: ath6kl: fix OOB read from firmware num_msg in TX complete handler

The firmware-controlled num_msg field (u8, 0-255) drives the loop in ath6kl_wmi_tx_complete_event_rx() without validation against the buffer length. This allows out-of-bounds reads of up to 1020 bytes past the WMI event buffer when the firmware sends an inflated num_msg.

Add a check that the buffer is large enough to hold the fixed struct and the num_msg variable-length entries.

AnalysisAI

Out-of-bounds kernel memory read in the Linux kernel ath6kl WiFi driver affects systems using Qualcomm Atheros AR6xxx chipsets from kernel 3.2 onward. The firmware-supplied num_msg field (a u8 value, range 0-255) governs a loop in ath6kl_wmi_tx_complete_event_rx() without any validation against the actual WMI event buffer length, enabling reads of up to 1020 bytes past the buffer boundary. An adjacent-network attacker with no privileges can potentially exploit this to leak sensitive kernel memory contents or trigger a kernel panic - neither CISA KEV listing nor public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis, and EPSS at 0.18% (7th percentile) corroborates low current exploitation activity.

Technical ContextAI

The ath6kl driver (drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath6kl/) implements the host-side WMI (Wireless Management Interface) protocol for Qualcomm Atheros AR6xxx embedded WiFi chipsets, commonly found in IoT devices, older Chromebooks, and embedded Linux platforms. The vulnerable function ath6kl_wmi_tx_complete_event_rx() processes TX completion events received from the on-chip firmware over the WMI channel. The firmware populates a num_msg field of type u8 (up to 255) that tells the kernel how many TX completion records follow in the buffer. The driver loops num_msg times reading fixed-size entries without first verifying that the buffer contains at least sizeof(fixed_header) + num_msg * sizeof(entry) bytes. A firmware that supplies an inflated num_msg - whether due to compromise, emulation of a rogue AP, or crafted 802.11 protocol responses - causes up to 1020 bytes of kernel memory beyond the allocated WMI event buffer to be accessed. The root cause maps to CWE-125 (Out-of-Bounds Read), though the CVE record lists no CWE. The CPE is cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* covering the broad Linux kernel tree from 3.2 onward.

RemediationAI

The primary fix is to upgrade to a patched kernel version: 6.6.148, 6.12.101, 6.18.42, 7.1.6, or 7.2-rc5 (mainline). Upstream stable patches are available at the following git.kernel.org commits: 69ac7ba3a3df6654e7daa82674575a8c4a1a63ea, 289edc3c71344b89e6522891147cfb8f61b088bb, eb636fbc443149b3501c3f97e26225ddcb314a0f, c38b0d5c661951b5dd082bdf31f8a57a0ce6e540, and 3a21c89215cc18f1a97c5e5bfd1da6d4f3d44495. Each adds a buffer-length check before the num_msg loop executes. If patching is not immediately possible, operators can blacklist the ath6kl kernel module (modprobe -r ath6kl and add blacklist ath6kl to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf) to prevent driver load - this disables all AR6xxx WiFi functionality on the host, which is only viable if the WiFi interface is non-essential. Restricting physical/network access to adjacent WiFi segments via network segmentation reduces exposure but does not eliminate the vulnerability for devices that must remain WiFi-accessible.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 Not-Affected

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EUVD-2026-55454 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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