CVE-2026-23133
Description
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ath10k Wi-Fi driver. This memory management bug occurs during the copy engine ring teardown process, where the driver incorrectly frees Direct Memory Access (DMA) coherent buffers. A local attacker with low privileges could exploit this by triggering the flawed teardown, potentially leading to memory leaks, resource exhaustion, and system instability, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
Statement
A memory management bug exists in the ath10k copy engine ring teardown path. The driver allocates DMA coherent descriptor rings with dma_alloc_coherent and stores the original addresses in unaligned fields. It also derives aligned addresses for device consumption. The buggy code passed the aligned CPU pointer and aligned DMA address into dma_free_coherent. The DMA API requires that dma_free_coherent is called with the exact CPU virtual address and DMA handle that were returned by dma_alloc_coherent. Freeing with adjusted aligned addresses can cause incorrect freeing behavior. This may manifest as DMA API warnings. It may also lead to memory leaks and resource exhaustion. Under some configurations it could contribute to instability during device reset or module unload.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.7 | 5.5 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Availability,Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Modify Memory; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
This weakness may result in the corruption of memory, and perhaps instructions, possibly leading to a crash. If the corrupted memory can be effectively controlled, it may be possible to execute arbitrary code.
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