[CVE-2026-68469][LOW] wifi: mwifiex: fix permanently busy scans after multiple roam iterations

[CVE-2026-68469][LOW] wifi: mwifiex: fix permanently busy scans after multiple roam iterations

[AL-KERNEL]

CVE: CVE-2026-68469
Priority: LOW
AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW
KPANIC flag: NO
Patch: wifi: mwifiex: fix permanently busy scans after multiple roam iterations
Commit: 2ed36b2586f16c480ed58de303af704c2235e16d
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=2ed36b2586f16c480ed58de303af704c2235e16d
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-68469
Analysis date: Sun, 16 Aug 2026 07:13:37 -0400
ActionableScore: 1
ActionableScore lower bound: 0
Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate / Low-like
Manual review required: NO

Summary:
A mwifiex power-save state race can cause deferred sleep confirmation to be skipped during roaming, leaving later WiFi scans permanently busy on affected firmware and causing a device-level denial of service.

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ABOUT THIS REPORT
======================================================================

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-68469 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-68469

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.

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AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT
======================================================================

CVE-2026-68469	LOW	CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN MODERATE	Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';CWE-362;CWE-841;CWE-667;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L';BEST CVSS score: '5.3';DESCR 'A logic race in the mwifiex WiFi driver can overwrite PS_STATE_PRE_SLEEP with PS_STATE_AWAKE while an association command response is processed during the firmware sleep request flow. The deferred sleep confirm is then not sent, so later scan_start may be acknowledged but scan_result events are not produced and scans remain permanently busy with EBUSY returned to userspace. The practical impact is denial of service for WiFi scanning and roaming on affected hardware such as IW412 under timing dependent conditions. For the CVSS the PR:N is used in the paranoid view because an adjacent attacker may influence roaming or association timing without a local account when the victim device is in WiFi range. The issue is not Internet reachable and requires a WiFi adjacent or local management scenario with specific firmware behavior.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate / Low-like (with actual score 1)	YES	REMOTE DANGER NETWORK HARDWARE TEST  DECREASED_TO_MODERATE_REGULAR_FROM_MODERATE7_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS_AND_CIANNH DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN3	NO	NO	checked

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ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
======================================================================

ActionableScore=1
ActionableScoreLower=0

## 1. ActionableScore

* Conservative score: 0
* Paranoid score: 1
* Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate / Low-like**::

## 2. Signal breakdown

Triggered signals:

* Firmware-mediated external influence: +1
  The failure depends on firmware sleep behavior and association or roaming timing. A nearby WiFi environment could plausibly influence roaming conditions, but this is not Internet remote or ordinary network packet reachability.

* Local unprivileged or low-privileged trigger: +1 in the local interpretation
  The reproduced tests use user-controlled WiFi roaming or reconnect behavior via wpa_cli, but this usually requires local WiFi management permissions, not arbitrary remote access.

* Availability impact realistic: +1
  The practical effect is persistent busy scans where scan requests never complete and later userspace requests fail with EBUSY.

Negative signals:

* Hard or unreliable timing required: -1
  The bug depends on EVENT_SLEEP arriving while association is in flight and on an approximately 20 ms delay window.

* Rare hardware or firmware-specific condition: -1
  The issue was reproduced on IW412 but not on W8997 after extended testing, and repeatability depended on firmware behavior and debug timing.

Not triggered:

* No generic memory corruption.
* No UAF, OOB write, double free, refcount corruption, or type confusion.
* No privilege escalation plausibility.
* No confidentiality or integrity impact.
* No reliable kernel crash.

## 3. Reachability analysis

The realistic trigger is local or adjacent WiFi-driven state manipulation during repeated roaming or reconnect cycles. A local user or service with permission to control WiFi association can trigger the problematic sequence more directly. A nearby attacker may influence roaming or association timing only in a paranoid adjacent scenario, but the patch does not support normal remote network reachability. The path is hardware and firmware dependent and appears especially tied to IW412 behavior. Namespaces and containers do not materially improve reachability because WiFi management is normally host-controlled.

Call-site confidence: high, because the affected function and state transition are shown directly in the patch context.

## 4. Severity interpretation

This behaves like a Low-like or ordinary Moderate availability issue, not an Important-class vulnerability. The bug is a logic race in driver power-save state handling, causing WiFi scan operations to become permanently busy. Theoretical external influence exists only through adjacent WiFi and firmware timing, while realistic exploitation evidence is limited to denial of service for WiFi scanning or roaming on specific hardware. There is no evidence of memory corruption, privilege escalation, data disclosure, or cross-boundary policy bypass.

## 5. One-sentence report phrase

A mwifiex power-save state race can cause deferred sleep confirmation to be skipped during roaming, leaving later WiFi scans permanently busy on affected firmware and causing a device-level denial of service.

## 6. Manual review recommendation

NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED

This can be auto-closed or handled as low-priority maintenance unless the affected product heavily depends on IW412 WiFi roaming reliability. The issue is firmware-specific, timing-dependent, and DoS-only with no supported memory corruption or privilege escalation primitive.

======================================================================
UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY
======================================================================

Patch: wifi: mwifiex: fix permanently busy scans after multiple roam iterations
Commit: 2ed36b2586f16c480ed58de303af704c2235e16d
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=2ed36b2586f16c480ed58de303af704c2235e16d

Commit description:

In order for the firmware to sleep, the driver has to confirm a
previously received sleep request. The normal sequence of evets goes
like this:
EVENT_SLEEP -> adapter->ps_state = PS_STATE_PRE_SLEEP -> sleep-confirm
-> SLEEP -> EVENT_AWAKE -> AWAKE.
Before sending the sleep-confirm command, the driver must make sure
there are no commands either running or waiting to be completed.

mwifiex_ret_802_11_associate() unconditionally sets
ps_state = PS_STATE_AWAKE when it processes the association command
response, outside of the normal powersave management flow. If
EVENT_SLEEP arrives while the association command is in flight,
ps_state is PRE_SLEEP when the association command response is parsed,
and the forced AWAKE overwrites it. The deferred sleep-confirm is
never sent.

A subsequent scan_start command is correctly acknowledged, but the
firmware doesn't generate scan_result events. The scan request never
finishes, and additional requests from userspace fail with -EBUSY.

After testing on both IW412 and W8997, I could only trigger the bug on
the IW412 and observed the firmwares behave differently. On the IW412
the firmware still sends EVENT_SLEEP while the authentication /
association process is ongoing. A W8997 under the same
conditions seems to suppress power-save for the duration of the
association, so PRE_SLEEP never coincided with the association response
even after extended periods of testing using the loops
described below (>12hours).

On the IW412, the delay between commands that triggers an EVENT_SLEEP
was empirically determined to be ~20ms. This delay can naturally occur
when the driver is outputting debugging information
(debug_mask = 0x00000037), in which situation the busy scans issue is
repeatable while running "test 1)" as described below. If the delay
between commands is less than ~20ms, the firmware stays awake and
the issue was not reproducible running the same test.

The host_mlme=false path also behaves differently. In this case, the
entire authentication / association transaction is executed by one
command (HostCmd_CMD_802_11_ASSOCIATE), and the firmware doesn't emit
EVENT_SLEEP while the command is running.

Remove the assignment so the ps_state is only manipulated in the paths
that are related to powersave event handling and on the main workqueue
for correct sleep confirmation.

The following loop tests were performed (with debugging output enabled):
1) force roaming between two AP's, one 5GHz and one 2.4GHz, same
SSID. Use wpa_cli to trigger the roaming behavior, sleep 2s
between iterations.
2) force a disconnection to AP 1 and a connection to AP 2, test
scan. Use wpa_cli to trigger the connection changes, sleep 2s
between iterations.

Each test ran in each device for at least 3 hours.

Fixes: 5e6e3a9 ("wireless: mwifiex: initial commit for Marvell mwifiex driver")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-7
Signed-off-by: Rafael Beims <rafael.beims@toradex.com>
Reviewed-by: Jeff Chen <jeff.chen_1@nxp.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260612122547.1586872-2-rafael@beims.me
Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg <johannes.berg@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>

Changed files:
  drivers/net/wireless/marvell/mwifiex/join.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=2ed36b2586f16c480ed58de303af704c2235e16d

======================================================================
DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY
======================================================================

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-68469 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-68469

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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
  The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
  The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 5.3

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: 1

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).