CVE-2026-23281 PUBLISHED

wifi: libertas: fix use-after-free in lbs_free_adapter()

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 13.01.2026 Published: 25.03.2026 Updated: 25.03.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: libertas: fix use-after-free in lbs_free_adapter()

The lbs_free_adapter() function uses timer_delete() (non-synchronous) for both command_timer and tx_lockup_timer before the structure is freed. This is incorrect because timer_delete() does not wait for any running timer callback to complete.

If a timer callback is executing when lbs_free_adapter() is called, the callback will access freed memory since lbs_cfg_free() frees the containing structure immediately after lbs_free_adapter() returns.

Both timer callbacks (lbs_cmd_timeout_handler and lbs_tx_lockup_handler) access priv->driver_lock, priv->cur_cmd, priv->dev, and other fields, which would all be use-after-free violations.

Use timer_delete_sync() instead to ensure any running timer callback has completed before returning.

This bug was introduced in commit 8f641d93c38a ("libertas: detect TX lockups and reset hardware") where del_timer() was used instead of del_timer_sync() in the cleanup path. The command_timer has had the same issue since the driver was first written.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b to 3f9dec4a6d95d7f1f5e9e9dfdfa173c053bba8dc (excl.)
  • affected from 954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b to 3c5c818c78b03a1725f3dcd566865c77b48dd3a6 (excl.)
  • affected from 954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b to d0155fe68f31b339961cf2d4f92937d57e9384e6 (excl.)
  • affected from 954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b to ed7d30f90b77f73a47498686ede83f622b7e4f0d (excl.)
  • affected from 954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b to a9f55b14486426d907459bced5825a25063bd922 (excl.)
  • affected from 954ee164f4f4598afc172c0ec3865d0352e55a0b to 03cc8f90d0537fcd4985c3319b4fafbf2e3fb1f0 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 2.6.24 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 2.6.24 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.167 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.130 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.78 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.17 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.7 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0-rc2 to * (incl.)

References