CVE-2026-23281

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: libertas: fix use-after-free in lbs_free_adapter()

The lbs_free_adapter() function uses timer_delete() (non-synchronous) for both command_timer and tx_lockup_timer before the structure is freed. This is incorrect because timer_delete() does not wait for any running timer callback to complete.

If a timer callback is executing when lbs_free_adapter() is called, the callback will access freed memory since lbs_cfg_free() frees the containing structure immediately after lbs_free_adapter() returns.

Both timer callbacks (lbs_cmd_timeout_handler and lbs_tx_lockup_handler) access priv->driver_lock, priv->cur_cmd, priv->dev, and other fields, which would all be use-after-free violations.

Use timer_delete_sync() instead to ensure any running timer callback has completed before returning.

This bug was introduced in commit 8f641d93c38a ("libertas: detect TX lockups and reset hardware") where del_timer() was used instead of del_timer_sync() in the cleanup path. The command_timer has had the same issue since the driver was first written.

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
LinuxLinux954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b < b15e0fa7adb4de3a03aee9e6fc4d83e5cf0a65e4affected
LinuxLinux954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b < 09f3c30ab3b1371eaf9676a1b8add57bca763083affected
LinuxLinux954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b < 3f9dec4a6d95d7f1f5e9e9dfdfa173c053bba8dcaffected
LinuxLinux954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b < 3c5c818c78b03a1725f3dcd566865c77b48dd3a6affected
LinuxLinux954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b < d0155fe68f31b339961cf2d4f92937d57e9384e6affected
LinuxLinux954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b < ed7d30f90b77f73a47498686ede83f622b7e4f0daffected
LinuxLinux954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b < a9f55b14486426d907459bced5825a25063bd922affected
LinuxLinux954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b < 03cc8f90d0537fcd4985c3319b4fafbf2e3fb1f0affected
LinuxLinux2.6.24affected
LinuxLinux0 < 2.6.24unaffected
LinuxLinux5.10.253 <= 5.10.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.15.203 <= 5.15.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.1.167 <= 6.1.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.6.130 <= 6.6.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.12.78 <= 6.12.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.18.17 <= 6.18.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.19.7 <= 6.19.*unaffected
LinuxLinux7.0 <= *unaffected

Weaknesses

References