From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: AL-KERNEL To: kernel-cve@kernelcve.org Subject: [CVE-2026-68412][LOW] wifi: cfg80211: Fix an error handling path in cfg80211_wext_siwscan() [ Upstream Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:11:30 -0400 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-AL-KERNEL-CVE: CVE-2026-68412 X-AL-KERNEL-Priority: LOW X-AL-KERNEL-Severity: LOW X-AL-KERNEL-Base-Severity: LOW X-AL-KERNEL-KPANIC: NO X-AL-KERNEL-ActionableScore: 2 X-AL-KERNEL-ActionableScore-Lower: 0 X-AL-KERNEL-Commit: e67dc2b8d5ac4bb804000b6732768a9ae678912f List-Id: CVE: CVE-2026-68412 Priority: LOW AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW KPANIC flag: NO Patch: wifi: cfg80211: Fix an error handling path in cfg80211_wext_siwscan() [ Upstream Commit: e67dc2b8d5ac4bb804000b6732768a9ae678912f Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=e67dc2b8d5ac4bb804000b6732768a9ae678912f Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-68412 Analysis date: Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:11:30 -0400 ActionableScore: 2 ActionableScore lower bound: 0 Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate / Low-like. Auto-close candidate unless product policy treats delegated wireless management as sensitive Manual review required: NO Summary: A local cfg80211 WEXT scan error path can leak the allocated creq object when an oversized SSID length is rejected, allowing only cumulative memory exhaustion DoS under repeated local privileged or delegated wireless scan control. ====================================================================== ABOUT THIS REPORT ====================================================================== The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-68412 is available here: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-68412 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-2026-68412 LOW CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN LOW Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';*CWE-401;*CWE-772;**CWE-400;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L';BEST CVSS score: '5.5';DESCR 'cfg80211_wext_siwscan() can leak the allocated creq object when an invalid SSID length is supplied in a WEXT scan request. The bug is an error handling memory leak rather than memory corruption, because the failing validation path returned directly instead of using the common cleanup path. For the CVSS the PR:L is used for the paranoid score because some systems may delegate wireless administration through CAP_NET_ADMIN, container root, or a local network management service. The issue is not network reachable and requires local ability to trigger wireless scan control operations. Impact is denial of service through cumulative memory exhaustion after repeated failed requests. There is no supported UAF, OOB access, information disclosure, or privilege escalation primitive in this patch context.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate / Low-like. Auto-close candidate unless product policy treats delegated wireless management as sensitive (with actual score 1) YES REMOTE SIMPLEFIX LEAK ERRORPATH TEST INCREASED_FROM_LOW_BASED_ON_HIGHCVSSSCORE DECREASED_TO_MODERATEREG_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN5 DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN3 NO NO checked ====================================================================== ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS ====================================================================== ActionableScore=2 ActionableScoreLower=0 ## 1. ActionableScore * Conservative score: 0 * Paranoid score: 2 * Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate / Low-like. Auto-close candidate unless product policy treats delegated wireless management as sensitive** ## 2. Signal breakdown Conservative signals: * Requires admin/root/CAP_NET_ADMIN in typical deployments: -2. Triggering WEXT scan control operations is normally restricted to privileged network administration paths or mediated by a local network manager. * Legacy / non-default execution mode: -1. The affected path is Wireless Extensions compatibility code, not the primary modern nl80211 interface. * Availability impact realistic: +1. Repeated triggering can leak memory and may eventually contribute to memory exhaustion, but the patch does not show immediate crash, UAF, OOB access, or corruption. * Broad/common subsystem: +1. cfg80211 is common on systems with WiFi support, but exposure depends on a wireless device and WEXT scan ioctl reachability. Paranoid adjustment: * Local delegated trigger concern: +1. Some systems may expose scan operations through NetworkManager, container root, service accounts, or delegated CAP_NET_ADMIN-like workflows. * Sustained resource exhaustion concern: +1. The leak can accumulate if repeatedly triggered, so a higher availability interpretation is defensible. * No memory corruption bonus. The bug is a leak on an error path, not UAF, double free, OOB write, stale pointer reuse, or type confusion. * No LPE bonus. There is no supported privilege escalation primitive. ## 3. Reachability analysis The bug is triggered locally through `cfg80211_wext_siwscan()` by submitting a WEXT scan request with `IW_SCAN_THIS_ESSID` and an `essid_len` greater than `IEEE80211_MAX_SSID_LEN`. In typical deployments, direct scan control requires administrative network privileges or a privileged network management service, so conservative scoring treats it as privileged. Namespaces or containers may lower practical reachability if CAP_NET_ADMIN or equivalent wireless-management access is delegated, but this is configuration dependent. The path is not remotely network-triggerable and requires local control-plane access to a wireless interface. ## 4. Severity interpretation This behaves like a Low-like or ordinary Moderate resource leak, not an Important-class kernel vulnerability. The realistic impact is cumulative memory exhaustion after repeated failed scan requests. The patch does not indicate memory corruption, object lifetime misuse, page-cache corruption, information disclosure, or privilege escalation. The paranoid score only reflects delegated local reachability plus sustained DoS potential. ## 5. One-sentence report phrase A local cfg80211 WEXT scan error path can leak the allocated creq object when an oversized SSID length is rejected, allowing only cumulative memory exhaustion DoS under repeated local privileged or delegated wireless scan control. ## 6. Manual review recommendation NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED Reason: this is a straightforward error-path memory leak with no UAF, OOB access, write primitive, sensitive-object exposure, or realistic privilege escalation signal. ====================================================================== UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY ====================================================================== Patch: wifi: cfg80211: Fix an error handling path in cfg80211_wext_siwscan() [ Upstream Commit: e67dc2b8d5ac4bb804000b6732768a9ae678912f Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=e67dc2b8d5ac4bb804000b6732768a9ae678912f Changed files: net/wireless/scan.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=e67dc2b8d5ac4bb804000b6732768a9ae678912f ====================================================================== DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY ====================================================================== The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-68412 can be found here: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-68412 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:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 5.5 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: 0 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 alexanjelausa@gmail.com (and both send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).