{
  "threat_severity" : "Moderate",
  "public_date" : "2026-08-10T12:03:40Z",
  "bugzilla" : {
    "description" : "kernel: Linux kernel: ath9k Wi-Fi driver use-after-free vulnerability leading to system crash",
    "id" : "2513286",
    "url" : "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2513286"
  },
  "cvss3" : {
    "cvss3_base_score" : "7.0",
    "cvss3_scoring_vector" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
    "status" : "draft"
  },
  "cwe" : "CWE-825",
  "details" : [ "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\nwifi: ath9k: hif_usb: don't dereference hif_dev after re-arming firmware request\nath9k_hif_request_firmware() re-arms an asynchronous firmware load via\nrequest_firmware_nowait(), passing hif_dev as the completion context, and\nthen still dereferences hif_dev:\ndev_info(&hif_dev->udev->dev, \"ath9k_htc: Firmware %s requested\\n\",\nhif_dev->fw_name);\nThe re-armed callback ath9k_hif_usb_firmware_cb() runs on the \"events\"\nworkqueue and, when the firmware is missing, walks the retry chain into\nath9k_hif_usb_firmware_fail() -> complete_all(&hif_dev->fw_done). That\nreleases the wait_for_completion(&hif_dev->fw_done) in a concurrent\nath9k_hif_usb_disconnect(), which then kfree()s hif_dev. The trailing\ndev_info() in the frame that re-armed the request can therefore read freed\nmemory (hif_dev->udev, the first field of struct hif_device_usb):\nBUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ath9k_hif_request_firmware\nRead of size 8 ... by task kworker/...\nath9k_hif_request_firmware\nath9k_hif_usb_firmware_cb           drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c:1247\nrequest_firmware_work_func\nAllocated by ...:\nath9k_hif_usb_probe                 drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c\nFreed by ...:\nath9k_hif_usb_disconnect -> kfree   drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c\nThe fw_done barrier only makes disconnect wait for the firmware chain to\n*terminate*; it does not protect the outer ath9k_hif_request_firmware()\nframe that re-armed the request and keeps touching hif_dev afterwards.\nDrop the post-request dev_info(): it is the only use of hif_dev after the\nasync request is armed, and it is purely informational (the dev_err() on the\nfailure path runs only when request_firmware_nowait() did not arm a callback,\nso hif_dev is still alive there).\nThis was first reported by syzbot as a single, non-reproduced crash that was\nlater auto-obsoleted, and was independently rediscovered by the reFuzz fuzzer,\nwhich produced a C reproducer (USB-gadget connect/disconnect of an ath9k_htc\ndevice whose firmware download fails). The vulnerable code is unchanged and\nstill present in v7.1-rc6, where the slab-use-after-free reproduces under KASAN\nonce the (sub-microsecond) race window is widened.", "A flaw was found in the ath9k Wi-Fi driver in the Linux kernel. A race condition exists during the asynchronous firmware loading process and device disconnection. A local attacker, by repeatedly connecting and disconnecting a malicious USB Wi-Fi device that fails firmware download, could trigger a use-after-free vulnerability. This could lead to reading freed memory, potentially causing a system crash and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS)." ],
  "package_state" : [ {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10",
    "fix_state" : "Affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6",
    "fix_state" : "Not affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7",
    "fix_state" : "Not affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7",
    "fix_state" : "Not affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel-rt",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8",
    "fix_state" : "Affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8",
    "fix_state" : "Fix deferred",
    "package_name" : "kernel-rt",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9",
    "fix_state" : "Affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9",
    "fix_state" : "Affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel-rt",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4",
    "fix_state" : "Will not fix",
    "package_name" : "openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4"
  } ],
  "references" : [ "https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-68363\nhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-68363\nhttps://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081041-CVE-2026-68363-69b6@gregkh/T" ],
  "name" : "CVE-2026-68363",
  "csaw" : false
}