Bug 2516695 (CVE-2026-72005)

Summary: CVE-2026-72005 kernel: wifi: rt2x00: avoid full teardown before work setup in probe
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the `rt2x00` WiFi driver within the Linux kernel. During the device probing process, if memory or workqueue allocations fail prematurely, the system attempts a full device teardown. This teardown incorrectly assumes that certain work items have been initialized, leading to invalid operations. An attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability to trigger a system crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:26:17 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: rt2x00: avoid full teardown before work setup in probe

rt2x00lib_probe_dev() uses the full rt2x00lib_remove_dev() teardown for
all probe failures. However, drv_data allocation and workqueue allocation
can fail before intf_work, autowakeup_work and sleep_work have been
initialized.

Do not enter the full remove path until the probe has reached the point
where those work items are set up. Return directly for drv_data allocation
failure, and use a small early cleanup path for workqueue allocation
failure.

This issue was found by our static analysis tool and then confirmed by
manual review of rt2x00lib_probe_dev() and rt2x00lib_remove_dev(). The
early probe exits should not call a common teardown path that assumes the
later work setup has already completed.

A QEMU PoC forced alloc_ordered_workqueue() to fail before the work
initializers are reached. The resulting fail path entered
rt2x00lib_remove_dev(), and DEBUG_OBJECTS reported invalid work drains with
rt2x00lib_probe_dev() and rt2x00lib_remove_dev() in the stack.
Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-08-17 15:09:19 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081507-CVE-2026-72005-1799@gregkh/T