CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-23444

HighCVSS 7.8
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.13%

3th percentile - higher than 3% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() (mac80211) had an error path that did not free the skb, causing a memory leak. Added missing kfree_skb() and removed redundant frees in callers (ath9k, mt76, mac80211_hwsim).

Risk Assessment

Memory leak can lead to exhaustion of system resources, potentially causing a crash.

Recommendation

Apply the Linux kernel patch that adds kfree_skb() in the first error path of ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb().

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

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.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS