CVE-2022-49238: ath11k: free peer for station when disconnect from AP for QCA6390/WCN6855

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2022-49238 is a high (CVSS 8.8) Use After Free vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.30% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 22.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 26-02-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 05-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ath11k: free peer for station when disconnect from AP for QCA6390/WCN6855 Commit b4a0f54156ac ("ath11k: move peer delete after vdev stop of station for QCA6390 and WCN6855") is to fix firmware crash by changing the WMI command sequence, but actually skip all the peer delete operation, then it lead commit 58595c9874c6 ("ath11k: Fixing dangling pointer issue upon peer delete failure") not take effect, and then happened a use-after-free warning from KASAN. because the peer->sta is not set to NULL and then used later. Change to only skip the WMI_PEER_DELETE_CMDID for QCA6390/WCN6855. log of user-after-free: [ 534.888665] BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in ath11k_dp_rx_update_peer_stats+0x912/0xc10 [ath11k] [ 534.888696] Read of size 8 at addr ffff8881396bb1b8 by task rtcwake/2860 [ 534.888705] CPU: 4 PID: 2860 Comm: rtcwake Kdump: loaded Tainted: G W 5.15.0-wt-ath+ #523 [ 534.888712] Hardware name: Intel(R) Client Systems NUC8i7HVK/NUC8i7HVB, BIOS HNKBLi70.86A.0067.2021.0528.1339 05/28/2021 [ 534.888716] Call Trace: [ 534.888720] <IRQ> [ 534.888726] dump_stack_lvl+0x57/0x7d [ 534.888736] print_address_description.constprop.0+0x1f/0x170 [ 534.888745] ? ath11k_dp_rx_update_peer_stats+0x912/0xc10 [ath11k] [ 534.888771] kasan_report.cold+0x83/0xdf [ 534.888783] ? ath11k_dp_rx_update_peer_stats+0x912/0xc10 [ath11k] [ 534.888810] ath11k_dp_rx_update_peer_stats+0x912/0xc10 [ath11k] [ 534.888840] ath11k_dp_rx_process_mon_status+0x529/0xa70 [ath11k] [ 534.888874] ? ath11k_dp_rx_mon_status_bufs_replenish+0x3f0/0x3f0 [ath11k] [ 534.888897] ? check_prev_add+0x20f0/0x20f0 [ 534.888922] ? __lock_acquire+0xb72/0x1870 [ 534.888937] ? find_held_lock+0x33/0x110 [ 534.888954] ath11k_dp_rx_process_mon_rings+0x297/0x520 [ath11k] [ 534.888981] ? rcu_read_unlock+0x40/0x40 [ 534.888990] ? ath11k_dp_rx_pdev_alloc+0xd90/0xd90 [ath11k] [ 534.889026] ath11k_dp_service_mon_ring+0x67/0xe0 [ath11k] [ 534.889053] ? ath11k_dp_rx_process_mon_rings+0x520/0x520 [ath11k] [ 534.889075] call_timer_fn+0x167/0x4a0 [ 534.889084] ? add_timer_on+0x3b0/0x3b0 [ 534.889103] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare.part.0+0x18c/0x370 [ 534.889117] __run_timers.part.0+0x539/0x8b0 [ 534.889123] ? ath11k_dp_rx_process_mon_rings+0x520/0x520 [ath11k] [ 534.889157] ? call_timer_fn+0x4a0/0x4a0 [ 534.889164] ? mark_lock_irq+0x1c30/0x1c30 [ 534.889173] ? clockevents_program_event+0xdd/0x280 [ 534.889189] ? mark_held_locks+0xa5/0xe0 [ 534.889203] run_timer_softirq+0x97/0x180 [ 534.889213] __do_softirq+0x276/0x86a [ 534.889230] __irq_exit_rcu+0x11c/0x180 [ 534.889238] irq_exit_rcu+0x5/0x20 [ 534.889244] sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x8e/0xc0 [ 534.889251] </IRQ> [ 534.889254] <TASK> [ 534.889259] asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x12/0x20 [ 534.889265] RIP: 0010:_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x38/0x70 [ 534.889271] Code: 74 24 10 e8 ea c2 bf fd 48 89 ef e8 12 53 c0 fd 81 e3 00 02 00 00 75 25 9c 58 f6 c4 02 75 2d 48 85 db 74 01 fb bf 01 00 00 00 <e8> 13 a7 b5 fd 65 8b 05 cc d9 9c 5e 85 c0 74 0a 5b 5d c3 e8 a0 ee [ 534.889276] RSP: 0018:ffffc90002e5f880 EFLAGS: 00000206 [ 534.889284] RAX: 0000000000000006 RBX: 0000000000000200 RCX: ffffffff9f256f10 [ 534.889289] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffffffa1c6e420 RDI: 0000000000000001 [ 534.889293] RBP: ffff8881095e6200 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: ffffffffa40d2b8f [ 534.889298] R10: fffffbfff481a571 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff8881095e6e68 [ 534.889302] R13: ffffc90002e5f908 R14: 0000000000000246 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 534.889316] ? mark_lock+0xd0/0x14a0 [ 534.889332] klist_next+0x1d4/0x450 [ 534.889340] ? dpm_wait_for_subordinate+0x2d0/0x2d0 [ 534.889350] device_for_each_child+0xa8/0x140 [ 534.889360] ? device_remove_class_symlinks+0x1b0/0x1b0 [ 534.889370] ? __lock_release+0x4bd/0x9f0 [ 534.889378] ? dpm_suspend+0x26b/0x3f0 [ 534.889390] dpm_wait_for_subordinate+ ---truncated---

• CWE-416Use After FreeThe product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.