CVE-2026-98307

Received Received - Intake

BaseFortify

Publication date: 2026-10-06

Last updated on: 2026-10-19

Assigner: kernel.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath11k: cleanup arsta in ath11k_mac_peer_cleanup_all() When mac80211 removes a sta, it calls .sta_state() which in turn calls ath11k_mac_station_remove(). In that function we clean up both peers & arsta related resources. But when the firmware crashes, ath11k calls ieee80211_restart_hw(), which assumes that all driver related resources are cleaned up beforehand. This cleanup is supposedly done by ath11k_mac_peer_cleanup_all() but does not in fact free arsta->rx_stats / tx_stats. Extract the arsta cleanup from ath11k_mac_station_remove() into a new ath11k_mac_station_cleanup() and call it from both there and ath11k_mac_peer_cleanup_all(). This should handle kmemleaks reports like: unreferenced object 0xffffff801ae66400 (size 1024): comm "hostapd", pid 1306, jiffies 4295011565 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace (crc d61c08ec): kmemleak_alloc+0x3c/0x50 __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x2b0/0x3e0 ath11k_mac_op_sta_state+0x1dc/0xb10 drv_sta_state+0xac/0x6f8 sta_info_insert_rcu+0x314/0x5e0 sta_info_insert+0x14/0x38 ieee80211_add_station+0x10c/0x1a0 nl80211_new_station+0x3e8/0x680 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0xc0/0x120 genl_rcv_msg+0x1b4/0x258 netlink_rcv_skb+0x4c/0x108 genl_rcv+0x38/0x60 netlink_unicast+0x190/0x278 netlink_sendmsg+0x15c/0x370 ____sys_sendmsg+0x120/0x290 ___sys_sendmsg+0x70/0xa0 Tested-on: QCN9074 hw1.0 PCI WLAN.HK.2.9.0.1-01977-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

Probability:
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Meta Information

Published

2026-10-06

Last Modified

2026-10-19

Generated

2026-10-19

AI Q&A

2026-10-06

EPSS Evaluated

2026-10-18

NVD

CVE-2026-98307

EUVD

EUVD-2026-93292

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
Linux	Linux	d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d
Linux	Linux	d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d
Linux	Linux	d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d
Linux	Linux	d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d
Linux	Linux	5.6

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This is a memory leak vulnerability in the Linux kernel's ath11k Wi-Fi driver. When a firmware crash occurs, the driver fails to properly clean up certain resources (arsta->rx_stats/tx_stats) during system recovery. This leads to unreferenced memory allocations that persist and are reported by kmemleak.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability is related to a memory leak in the Linux kernel's ath11k WiFi driver. Detection primarily involves checking for memory leaks or firmware crashes in the ath11k module. Monitor kernel logs for kmemleak reports or firmware crash messages. Use commands like dmesg | grep ath11k or journalctl -k | grep ath11k to check for related errors.

Impact Analysis

The vulnerability causes memory leaks that can gradually consume system memory. This may lead to degraded performance, unexpected system behavior, or crashes over time. Systems with frequent Wi-Fi driver crashes or station state changes are most affected.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability is a kernel memory leak in the Linux ath11k Wi-Fi driver. It does not directly impact data privacy or security controls required by GDPR or HIPAA. The issue involves unreferenced memory in the kernel, which could lead to resource exhaustion but does not expose or leak user data.

Mitigation Strategies

Apply the latest kernel updates that include the fix for this issue. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling the ath11k driver or restricting its use to non-critical networks. Monitor system logs for firmware crashes or memory leaks as a temporary workaround.

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