CVE-2026-93796

Received Received - Intake

WiFi Driver Memory Corruption in Linux Kernel

Publication date: 2026-09-24

Last updated on: 2026-09-25

Assigner: kernel.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: iwlwifi: pcie: null RX pointers after free When iwl_pcie_tx_init() fails after RX init, nic init unwinds via iwl_pcie_rx_free(). The freed RX members stayed non-NULL on the live transport object, so later teardown or retry could touch stale RX state. Set rx_pool, global_table, rxq, and alloc_page to NULL after free to make repeated cleanup and retry paths safe.

CVSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-09-24

Last Modified

2026-09-25

Generated

2026-10-15

AI Q&A

2026-09-24

EPSS Evaluated

2026-10-13

NVD

CVE-2026-93796

EUVD

EUVD-2026-86183

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
intel	iwlwifi	*

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability in the Linux kernel involves a flaw in the iwlwifi driver for Intel Wi-Fi chips. When a specific initialization function fails after memory allocation for receiving data packets, the cleanup process incorrectly leaves pointers to freed memory. This can lead to attempts to access or free already released memory during later operations, potentially causing system instability or crashes.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves null RX pointers after free in the iwlwifi driver. Detection requires checking for kernel logs or crashes related to iwlwifi or wireless driver failures. Monitor system logs for errors like 'iwl_pcie_tx_init failed' or 'RX state corruption' after driver initialization.

Impact Analysis

If exploited, this vulnerability could cause your system to crash or become unstable, particularly when using Intel Wi-Fi chips. It may lead to denial-of-service conditions where the Wi-Fi functionality stops working until the system is rebooted. Data corruption or unexpected behavior in network operations is also possible.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability does not directly affect compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, or similar standards as it is a low-level kernel driver issue related to memory management in WiFi hardware. Compliance impacts would only occur if this flaw led to data exposure or system instability, which is not described in the provided context.

Mitigation Strategies

Update the Linux kernel to the latest stable version where this issue is resolved. If immediate update is not possible, avoid using affected wireless drivers or disable the iwlwifi module until patched. Monitor vendor advisories for kernel updates.

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