Bug 2424952 (CVE-2022-50709) - CVE-2022-50709 kernel: wifi: ath9k: avoid uninit memory read in ath9k_htc_rx_msg()
Summary: CVE-2022-50709 kernel: wifi: ath9k: avoid uninit memory read in ath9k_htc_rx_...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2022-50709
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-12-24 12:03 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-01-13 18:33 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
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Last Closed:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-12-24 12:03:15 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: ath9k: avoid uninit memory read in ath9k_htc_rx_msg()

syzbot is reporting uninit value at ath9k_htc_rx_msg() [1], for
ioctl(USB_RAW_IOCTL_EP_WRITE) can call ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream() with
pkt_len = 0 but ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream() uses
__dev_alloc_skb(pkt_len + 32, GFP_ATOMIC) based on an assumption that
pkt_len is valid. As a result, ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream() allocates skb
with uninitialized memory and ath9k_htc_rx_msg() is reading from
uninitialized memory.

Since bytes accessed by ath9k_htc_rx_msg() is not known until
ath9k_htc_rx_msg() is called, it would be difficult to check minimal valid
pkt_len at "if (pkt_len > 2 * MAX_RX_BUF_SIZE) {" line in
ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream().

We have two choices. One is to workaround by adding __GFP_ZERO so that
ath9k_htc_rx_msg() sees 0 if pkt_len is invalid. The other is to let
ath9k_htc_rx_msg() validate pkt_len before accessing. This patch chose
the latter.

Note that I'm not sure threshold condition is correct, for I can't find
details on possible packet length used by this protocol.


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