Bug 2541424 (CVE-2026-98160)

Summary:	CVE-2026-98160 kernel: staging: rtl8723bs: fix mismatched free of HalData in rtw_sdio_if1_init()
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified	CC:	akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, 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 Linux kernel's rtl8723bs wireless driver. During device initialization error handling, allocated memory is released using an incompatible deallocation routine. A local attacker could exploit this condition during driver initialization failures to cause memory corruption, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS) via a system crash.	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 2026-09-25 13:32:12 UTC

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.

Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-09-28 17:35:40 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/security/vulns.git/plain/cve/published/2026/CVE-2026-98160.mbox