wifi: mac80211: fix memory leak in ieee80211_register_hw()
Published Aug 15, 2026
5.5
MEDIUMCVSS 3.1
EPSS 0.22%
Description
If kmemdup() fails while copying supported band structures, the error path jumps to fail_rate. This skips rate_control_deinitialize() and leaks the initialized local->rate_ctrl.
Fix this by adding a fail_band label that shares the rate-control cleanup path before falling through to the remaining teardown.
The bug was first flagged by an experimental analysis tool we are developing for kernel memory-management bugs while analyzing v6.13-rc1. The tool is still under development and is not yet publicly available. Manual inspection confirms that the bug is still present in v7.1-rc7.
An x86_64 allyesconfig build showed no new warnings. As we do not have a suitable mac80211 device/driver combination to test with, no runtime testing was able to be performed.
Affected products
-
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version StatusaffectedConstraints
- Version
-
- Version 4.20StatusaffectedConstraints-
- Version 0StatusunaffectedConstraints<4.20
- Version 5.10.261StatusunaffectedConstraints<=5.10.*
- Version 5.15.212StatusunaffectedConstraints<=5.15.*
- Version 6.1.178StatusunaffectedConstraints<=6.1.*
- Version 6.12.97StatusunaffectedConstraints<=6.12.*
- Version 6.18.40StatusunaffectedConstraints<=6.18.*
- Version 6.6.145StatusunaffectedConstraints<=6.6.*
- Version 7.1.5StatusunaffectedConstraints<=7.1.*
- Version 7.2StatusunaffectedConstraints<=*
- Version
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
| Vendor | Product | Default status | Versions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | unaffected |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Linux | Linux | affected |
|
No data.
No data.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
kernel
Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
kernel
Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
kernel
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
kernel-rt
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
kernel
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
kernel-rt
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
kernel
Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
kernel-rt
Fix deferred
| Product | Package | State | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | kernel | Fix deferred | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | kernel | Out of support scope | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | kernel | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | kernel-rt | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | kernel | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | kernel-rt | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | kernel | Fix deferred | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | kernel-rt | Fix deferred | n/a |
No package ranges for this CVE.
Remediation
No remediation recorded yet.
References (13)
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-72004 Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2516648 Issue Tracking
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/08b71bd92317f99642b842cfc0d30200868162fc
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3d8b9b290421c3cd505fcd2f551f143f8142786a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/45e9ac538cdff7bce656d731114a64eda85af0d7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/95fc02722edde02946d0d475221f2b2054d3d8ba
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a02b52fe54f7b5107aefa1ce28c2f69749c57616
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a7584f261e64fe14e45bdf70f343e16c1ee3a037
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bdc0b8bfdc142439d6708b072e8159eb515ee7b0
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f01eec75fd372961550b928902f3a2c11fca1daf
- https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081506-CVE-2026-72004-f182@gregkh/T
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72004
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-72004
Change history (0)
No recorded changes yet.