Bug 2516894 (CVE-2026-74325)

Summary:	CVE-2026-74325 kernel: wifi: mt76: use kfree_rcu for offchannel link in mt76_put_vif_phy_link
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability-draft	Assignee:	Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified	CC:	rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A flaw was found in the wifi: mt76 driver within the Linux kernel. This vulnerability occurs because the mt76_put_vif_phy_link function improperly deallocates memory for offchannel links. An attacker could exploit this by causing the system to access memory after it has been freed, leading to a use-after-free condition. This could result in a system crash (denial of service) or potentially allow for arbitrary code execution.	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:39:03 UTC

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

wifi: mt76: use kfree_rcu for offchannel link in mt76_put_vif_phy_link

mt76_put_vif_phy_link() frees the offchannel mlink with plain kfree()
after rcu_assign_pointer(NULL). However, rcu_assign_pointer only prevents
future RCU readers from obtaining the pointer -- it does not wait for
existing readers that already hold it via rcu_dereference.

The TX datapath (e.g. mt7996_mac_write_txwi) dereferences mlink->wcid
and mlink->idx under rcu_read_lock. If a TX softirq obtained the pointer
via rcu_dereference just before the NULL assignment, it will dereference
freed memory after the kfree.

struct mt76_vif_link already contains an rcu_head field that is unused at
this free site -- a developer oversight, since the adjacent
kfree_rcu_mightsleep call for rx_sc in the same function shows the
pattern was understood.

Replace kfree(mlink) with kfree_rcu(mlink, rcu_head).

Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-08-20 17:06:03 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081554-CVE-2026-74325-51d7@gregkh/T