Bug 2559673 (CVE-2026-98936)

Summary: CVE-2026-98936 kernel: kernel: ath11k: Denial of Service via unreset station counter during hardware restart
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: 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   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ath11k wireless driver. During hardware restart events, the driver fails to properly reset its connected station counter. Consequently, the driver falsely reports that the connection capacity has been exceeded, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS) where new wireless stations and peers are prevented from associating with the network.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-23 12:58:55 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: ath11k: reset ar->num_stations on hardware start

When (multiple) hw restart occurs, we end up in a situation where we
cannot accept new stations / mesh peers. This seems to be the
'num_stations' in 'struct ath11k' that did not get reset properly in
this case. In ath11k_mac_op_start(), it was indeed the only accounting var
that did not get reset so let's clear it too.

This avoids problems like those:

	[1248828.088023] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 12281 at net/mac80211/util.c:1682 ieee80211_reconfig_stations+0x98/0xc0
	[1248828.088115] Call trace:
	[1248828.088116]  ieee80211_reconfig_stations+0x98/0xc0 (P)
	[1248828.088119]  ieee80211_reconfig+0x774/0x1438
	[1248828.088123]  ieee80211_restart_work+0x10c/0x178
	[1248828.088127]  process_one_work+0x178/0x3c0
	[1248828.088130]  worker_thread+0x280/0x440
	[1248828.088133]  kthread+0xe0/0xf8
	[1248828.088137]  ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
	[1248828.088141] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
	[1248836.686604] ath11k_pci 0000:04:00.0: refusing to associate station: too many connected already (128)
	[1248836.686609] ath11k_pci 0000:04:00.0: Failed to add station: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx for VDEV: 1

Tested-on: QCN9074 hw1.0 PCI WLAN.HK.2.9.0.1-01977-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1