CVE-2026-23444
Medium
Elevated severity or exploit probability.
CVSS base
7.8
HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS — probability of exploitation (30 days)
0.1%
2.9th percentile
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness / dates
CWE-401
Published 2026-04-03 · modified 2026-07-24
CVSS breakdown
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
| Attack Vector | L | Local |
| Attack Complexity | L | Low |
| Privileges Required | L | Low |
| User Interaction | N | None |
| Scope | U | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | H | High |
| Integrity | H | High |
| Availability | H | High |
Timeline
- 2026-04-03 — Published (NVD)
- 2026-07-24 — Last modified (NVD)
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() has three error paths, but only two of them free the skb. The first error path (ieee80211_tx_prepare() returning TX_DROP) does not free it, while invoke_tx_handlers() failure and the fragmentation check both do. Add kfree_skb() to the first error path so all three are consistent, and remove the now-redundant frees in callers (ath9k, mt76, mac80211_hwsim) to avoid double-free. Document the skb ownership guarantee in the function's kdoc.
Affected
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/06e769dddcbeb3baf2ce346273b53dd61fdbecf4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3b4d27acafaeab478fd24f79ad6e593a892828b9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/50f1b690b4868923fbd242298def2fb88662f108
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5ef8ca1c164786da24169af155c1ca1ff1353cf8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/905ef207d5ed99ca64adfe39fba9ac46e434327a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9a779d1f480e83720b5384adf165604e7ee226bd
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d5ad6ab61cbd89afdb60881f6274f74328af3ee9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f77b51bcee7be2bb686b5f7a2d4a1921e4bdb9f4