CVE-2026-98160: staging: rtl8723bs: fix mismatched free of HalData in rtw_sdio_if1_init()

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-09-25 · updated 2026-10-19
Weakness: CWE-763

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: staging: rtl8723bs: fix mismatched free of HalData in rtw_sdio_if1_init() padapter->HalData is allocated via vzalloc(), but incorrectly freed using kfree() in the rtw_sdio_if1_init() error path. Using kfree() to release this vmalloc-backed buffer can lead to memory corruption. Use rtw_hal_data_deinit() to pair the free correctly and free HalData with vfree(). The bug was first flagged by an experimental static analysis tool we are developing for kernel memory-management bugs. Manual inspection confirms that the issue is still present in current mainline. An x86_64 allyesconfig build showed no new warnings. As we do not have suitable RTL8723BS SDIO hardware to test with, no runtime testing was able to be performed.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 4.12 before 5.10.270; from 5.11 before 5.15.221; from 5.16 before 6.1.188; from 6.2 before 6.6.157; from 6.7 before 6.12.110; from 6.13 before 6.18.52 — fixed in 5.10.270, 5.15.221, 6.1.188, 6.12.110, 6.18.52, 6.6.157

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.270, 5.15.221, 6.1.188, 6.12.110. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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