CVE-2024-53188: wifi: ath12k: fix crash when unbinding

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-12-27 · updated 2026-08-04
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath12k: fix crash when unbinding If there is an error during some initialization related to firmware, the function ath12k_dp_cc_cleanup is called to release resources. However this is released again when the device is unbinded (ath12k_pci), and we get: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000020 at RIP: 0010:ath12k_dp_cc_cleanup.part.0+0xb6/0x500 [ath12k] Call Trace: ath12k_dp_cc_cleanup ath12k_dp_free ath12k_core_deinit ath12k_pci_remove ... The issue is always reproducible from a VM because the MSI addressing initialization is failing. In order to fix the issue, just set to NULL the released structure in ath12k_dp_cc_cleanup at the end.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.3 before 6.6.64; from 6.7 before 6.11.11; from 6.12 before 6.12.2 — fixed in 6.11.11, 6.12.2, 6.6.64

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.11.11, 6.12.2, 6.6.64. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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