* [CVE-2026-90361][LOW] wifi: ath11k: fix leak in ath11k_service_ready_ext_event() [ Upstream
@ 2026-09-18 11:14 21% AL-KERNEL
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From: AL-KERNEL @ 2026-09-18 11:14 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: kernel-cve
CVE: CVE-2026-90361
Priority: LOW
AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW
KPANIC flag: NO
Patch: wifi: ath11k: fix leak in ath11k_service_ready_ext_event() [ Upstream
Commit: 35cb3086b426b3468cfc32d0d8d9883409705ea9
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=35cb3086b426b3468cfc32d0d8d9883409705ea9
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-90361
Analysis date: Fri, 18 Sep 2026 07:14:07 -0400
ActionableScore: 2
ActionableScore lower bound: 1
Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate
Manual review required: NO
Summary:
No one-sentence report phrase was found.
======================================================================
ABOUT THIS REPORT
======================================================================
The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-90361 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-90361
The original announcement does not normally provide a security severity
estimate, CVSS assessment, or enough information to determine whether the
reported kernel bug represents a practically relevant security issue.
This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. It combines
an autonomous classifier with LLM-assisted technical analysis and a
separate ActionableScore mechanism.
The purpose of this report is to prioritize Linux kernel CVEs before
manual review, identify cases that require prompt investigation, and
support automatic closure of issues that are unlikely to have meaningful
security impact.
Published priority for this report: LOW
Manual review required: NO
A detailed explanation of the methodology and priority rules is included
at the end of this message.
======================================================================
AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT
======================================================================
CVE-2026-90361 LOW https://www.kernelcve.org/list/?q=CVE-2026-90361 CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN IMPORTANT Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';*CWE-401;*CWE-772;**CWE-400;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L';BEST CVSS score: '4.7';DESCR 'A memory leak in ath11k_service_ready_ext_event can occur when svc_rdy_ext.mac_phy_caps is allocated during WMI TLV parsing and a later TLV parsing step fails. The allocation is temporary and was freed on the success path but not on the error path, so repeated failed service ready events could slowly consume kernel memory. For the CVSS the PR:L is used only for the paranoid score because a less privileged local actor might be able to influence repeated device recovery or reset in some delegated environments, while the typical case requires administrator level driver or device control. The issue is not directly network reachable from ordinary WiFi traffic because the relevant input is a firmware to host WMI event during device initialization or recovery. Impact is denial of service via resource exhaustion only, with no evidence of memory corruption, information disclosure, or privilege escalation.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate (with actual score 2) YES REMOTE LEAK ERRORPATH UAF NETWORK LINUS TEST LOWERED_FROM_HIGH_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS DECREASED_TO_MODERATEREG_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN4 DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN3 NO NO checked
======================================================================
ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
======================================================================
ActionableScore=2
ActionableScoreLower=1
PrimitiveClass=NONE
RealUAF=NO
HostAdminRequired=UNKNOWN
NamespaceScopedPrivilege=NO
ImportantCandidate=NO
ManualReview=NO
AutoDowngradeAllowed=YES
1. ActionableScore
* Raw conservative score: 1
* Conservative score: 1
* Raw paranoid score: 2
* Paranoid score: 2
* Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate**::
No floor or cap changed the score.
2. Signal breakdown
Conservative positive signals:
* +1 Concrete persistent kernel resource/reference leak. The patch directly shows that svc_rdy_ext.mac_phy_caps is allocated during WMI TLV parsing and is lost on the error path unless explicitly freed.
Paranoid additional signals:
* +1 Potential accumulated resource pressure. If service ready extended events repeatedly fail after mac_phy_caps allocation, the leak can accumulate and contribute to memory pressure or DoS. This is still resource exhaustion only.
Negative or non-awarded signals:
* +0 RealUAF not awarded. No stale pointer dereference, post-free use, double free, or repeated release/refcount mutation is shown.
* +0 Reliable kernel crash not awarded. The patch documents kmemleak style leakage, not an immediate kernel panic or Oops.
* +0 Remote reachability not awarded. The input is a firmware to host WMI event, not ordinary attacker controlled WiFi packet traffic.
* +0 Local unprivileged trigger not awarded. No evidence shows that an ordinary local user can force this exact WMI parse failure sequence.
* +0 Strong LPE or weak LPE not awarded. No corruption, controlled reclaim, arbitrary write, security boundary bypass, or privilege escalation path is established.
* +0 Confidentiality and integrity not awarded. The bug is a missing free on an error path and does not expose data or modify protected state.
* No race penalty applied. This is an ordered error path leak, not a timing race.
* No rare hardware penalty applied. The subsystem is hardware specific, but the score is already low and the patch does not require treating the hardware as a rare physical attack prerequisite.
3. Reachability analysis
The vulnerable path is in ath11k_service_ready_ext_event during processing of a WMI service ready extended event from firmware. The immediate malformed or failing input is firmware mediated. Ordinary WiFi traffic is not shown to directly reach this parser state or control the failing TLV sequence.
A local administrator could plausibly cause repeated driver load, unload, reset, or recovery cycles, but host-admin-equivalent privilege is not positively established as the only possible route. Therefore HostAdminRequired is UNKNOWN rather than YES. No supplied evidence establishes a namespace-scoped complete trigger chain, and network namespaces are not relevant to this driver firmware event path.
There is likely prior device and driver availability as a prerequisite. The issue depends on ath11k hardware and firmware interaction, but no special attacker-controlled hardware capability is established. Race repeatability is not relevant because this is not a race.
4. Primitive and severity interpretation
The exact primitive is a memory/resource leak caused by missing kfree on an error path. svc_rdy_ext.mac_phy_caps is temporary state allocated during TLV parsing. It is freed on success but was not freed when parsing later failed.
This is not active structured UAF and not fixed stale storage UAF. There is no cleanup stale dereference and no second lifetime/refcount mutation through a dangling object. PrimitiveClass is NONE because the patch establishes a resource leak but not kernel memory corruption, lifetime corruption, authorization bypass, ownership violation, or semantic reinterpretation.
The demonstrated consequence is memory leakage. The plausible worst case is resource exhaustion after repeated failures, but no immediate host-wide crash, controlled corruption, information disclosure, or privilege escalation is supported. ImportantCandidate is NO because the issue lacks meaningful exploitation leverage beyond resource exhaustion. AutoDowngradeAllowed is YES because this is a constrained leak with no unresolved memory corruption or boundary primitive.
Operationally this is Low to ordinary Moderate priority and can be handled in normal maintenance unless the product has evidence of repeated ath11k recovery failures that make the leak accumulate rapidly.
5. One-sentence report phrase
ath11k can leak svc_rdy_ext.mac_phy_caps when WMI service ready extended TLV parsing fails after allocation, creating a firmware mediated resource leak that may cause DoS only after repeated failures.
6. Manual review recommendation
NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED
Reason: the patch establishes a missing free and resource leak only, with no UAF, repeated release, arbitrary write, disclosure, authorization bypass, direct remote trigger, or privilege escalation evidence.
7. Call-site confidence
Call-site confidence: high
======================================================================
UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY
======================================================================
Patch: wifi: ath11k: fix leak in ath11k_service_ready_ext_event() [ Upstream
Commit: 35cb3086b426b3468cfc32d0d8d9883409705ea9
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=35cb3086b426b3468cfc32d0d8d9883409705ea9
Changed files:
drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/wmi.c
Diff excerpt:
Not included in this email. See the upstream URL for the full patch.
Full patch:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=35cb3086b426b3468cfc32d0d8d9883409705ea9
======================================================================
DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY
======================================================================
The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-90361 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-90361
The original CVE announcement normally does not include a security-level
estimate. In particular, it may not contain a CVSS assessment, an impact
level, or enough information to determine whether the reported bug is a
practically relevant security issue. One purpose of this parallel CVE list
is to provide that missing technical and prioritization information.
The original goal of the AL-KERNEL project was to prioritize Linux kernel
CVE analysis automatically before manual review. The system can also help
identify non-security issues that may be suitable for automatic closure.
This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin.
The first analysis stage combines an autonomous classifier with additional
LLM-based analysis. The autonomous classifier runs locally on a CPU and is
based on a backpropagation neural network. Together, these mechanisms
produce a technical vulnerability description, identify likely weakness
types, estimate CVSS severity, and provide input for ActionableScore.
Two CVSS estimates are retained because incomplete kernel vulnerability
information often permits more than one defensible interpretation:
Conservative CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 4.7
The conservative vector represents a lower-impact interpretation.
The Best/paranoid vector intentionally represents a plausible upper-bound
interpretation and should not automatically be treated as demonstrated
real-world impact.
CVSS may also need to be adjusted for a particular Linux deployment,
because actual reachability, privileges, enabled kernel configuration,
hardware, namespaces, exposed device nodes, and other environmental
conditions can differ significantly between systems.
A separate ActionableScore mechanism evaluates practical remediation
urgency. Its analysis may include reachability, attack prerequisites,
subsystem exposure, memory-corruption characteristics, denial-of-service
reliability, and possible confidentiality, integrity, or
privilege-escalation impact.
Conservative ActionableScore: 1
Paranoid ActionableScore: 2
The final base severity is taken directly from the second tab-separated
field of the AL-KERNEL classification result. ActionableScore does not
replace or independently override that final AL-KERNEL decision, and
if ActionableScore adjusted impact level of ALKERNEL, then you would see
self-readable flags above like INCREASED_TO_HIGH_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCOREHIGHEREQTHAN7.
For an AL-KERNEL result of MODERATE, this report uses the following
additional presentation split:
ActionableScore below 5 -> MODERATE REGULAR
ActionableScore 5 or more -> MODERATE 7.0
The distinction between MODERATE REGULAR and MODERATE 7.0 makes it
possible to identify Moderate issues that should receive manual analysis
and fixes before lower-priority MODERATE REGULAR issues. In many cases,
MODERATE REGULAR fixes may wait for a later rebase or routine update.
There is one override in which MODERATE REGULAR becomes MODERATE 7.0
even when the ActionableScore is below 5. When the AL-KERNEL result
contains the KPANIC flag, a MODERATE result is always presented as
MODERATE 7.0. The KPANIC flag selected with few regexps without
usage of AI at all, so it helps to detect cases when Kernel Crash happens
and similar (to filter False-Negative results from the LLM usage).
KPANIC indicates that a reliable kernel crash, kernel panic, or similarly
serious kernel availability impact was identified by the classification
workflow.
AL-KERNEL base severity for this report: LOW
KPANIC detected for this report: NO
Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): LOW
These results are intended to support engineering triage. They are
machine-generated estimates, and cases marked for manual review should
be validated by a human security engineer before final disposition.
For more info read docs linked from here: https://kernelcve.org/
(and you can submit you own patch there to generate such a report
for non-existant CVE-id yet).
Note that in many cases this AI tool selects higher severity, than
real is (means you can expect Importants instead of Moderate 7.0 or
Moderates 7.0 instead of regular Moderates). If you see such cases,
please use reply email interface to add additional manual analyses
info to this particular CVE.
And please, please, let me know when you see Lows instead of Importants
or Important instead of Low (because particular for such cases I
need to tune this AI tool to make it better for this one and next similar).
My contact email for such notifications is [email protected] (and both
send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).
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