[CVE-2026-74413][MODERATE 7.0] wifi: rtw89: fix wrong pci_get_drvdata type in AER handlers [ Upstream

[CVE-2026-74413][MODERATE 7.0] wifi: rtw89: fix wrong pci_get_drvdata type in AER handlers [ Upstream

[AL-KERNEL]

CVE: CVE-2026-74413
Priority: MODERATE 7.0
AL-KERNEL base severity: MODERATE
KPANIC flag: NO
Patch: wifi: rtw89: fix wrong pci_get_drvdata type in AER handlers [ Upstream
Commit: aefc30e4a829c1683f6ae999df7f9310c27eae6c
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=aefc30e4a829c1683f6ae999df7f9310c27eae6c
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-74413
Analysis date: Sat, 15 Aug 2026 08:38:30 -0400
ActionableScore: 5
ActionableScore lower bound: 3
Actionable bucket: Actionable Moderate at minimum
Manual review required: YES

Summary:
A type confusion in rtw89 PCI AER handlers caused an `ieee80211_hw` pointer to be treated as `net_device`, allowing wrong-offset kernel reads and writes during PCI error recovery, with realistic impact of local or device-mediated DoS and a weak manual-review concern for broader corruption impact.

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ABOUT THIS REPORT
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The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-74413 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-74413

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: MODERATE 7.0
Manual review required: YES

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
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CVE-2026-74413	MODERATE	CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN MODERATE	Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H';CWE-843;*CWE-787;CWE-704;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';BEST CVSS score: '5.8';DESCR 'rtw89 PCI AER handlers used pci_get_drvdata as if it returned a net_device pointer, while probe stored an ieee80211_hw pointer. As a result, netif_device_detach and netif_device_attach could read and write wrong offsets in the ieee80211_hw object during PCI error recovery. This is a type confusion and wrong-object access in kernel context, with a practical impact of driver state corruption or kernel crash. For the CVSS the PR:L is used for the paranoid score because some deployments may allow a reduced capability local actor, service account, or delegated recovery path to trigger PCI error recovery, while the normal base case is closer to PR:H. The issue is not directly network reachable and normally depends on PCIe AER injection, reset/error recovery control, or a real device fault. Impact is at least local denial of service via kernel crash, and in worst case may allow limited confidentiality or integrity impact due to kernel memory corruption and should be reviewed manually.';YES REQUIRES MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Actionable Moderate at minimum (with actual score 4)	YES	REMOTE DANGER SIMPLEFIX ERRORPATH NETWORK LINUS TEST  DECREASED_TO_MODERATEREG_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN5	YES	NO	checked

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ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
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ActionableScore=5
ActionableScoreLower=3

## 1. ActionableScore

* Conservative score: 3
* Paranoid score: 5
* Final recommended bucket: **Actionable Moderate at minimum**::

This is not a strong Important candidate by itself, because the trigger path is PCI AER recovery and not directly reachable by ordinary local users or the network. However, it should not be auto-closed because the bug is a real kernel type confusion with wrong-offset reads/writes in a driver error-recovery path.

## 2. Signal breakdown

Conservative signals:

* Memory corruption, weak/indirect corruption candidate: +1
  `pci_get_drvdata()` returns `ieee80211_hw`, but the old code treated it as `net_device`, so `netif_device_detach()` and `netif_device_attach()` accessed wrong offsets.

* Reliable kernel crash / strong DoS: +1
  Wrong-object access in kernel context can corrupt driver state or crash during PCI error recovery.

* Privileged kernel/device-management memory corruption path: +1
  The corruption occurs in PCI AER device-management handlers.

* Requires admin/root/CAP_* in typical deployments: -2
  Reliable triggering usually requires PCIe AER injection, reset/error recovery control, a test module, or equivalent privileged access.

* Firmware-mediated external influence: +1
  A real PCIe device or firmware/hardware error can invoke the AER path, even if this is not directly network-triggerable.

Conservative total: 3

Paranoid additional interpretation:

* Weak LPE concern: +1
  The primitive is invalid struct interpretation with wrong-offset kernel writes. There is no demonstrated reclaim, arbitrary write, or callback control, but the corruption sink is nontrivial and deserves manual review.

Paranoid total: 5

## 3. Reachability analysis

The bug is reached through PCI AER handlers in the Realtek rtw89 PCI WiFi driver. It is not directly network reachable and normal WiFi packet traffic is not sufficient based on the patch. In typical deployments, a local attacker would need privileged control over PCI error injection, device reset/error recovery, or a kernel module to trigger the handlers reliably. A real hardware or firmware-driven PCIe error could also reach the path, but that is not the same as a remote network trigger.

Namespaces and containers generally do not make this directly reachable unless the container or service has delegated device-management privileges. Reduced-capability root or a service account with access to recovery/control paths should be treated as a paranoid PR:L-like scenario rather than full host-root.

Call-site confidence: high. The affected handlers and the wrong API usage are shown directly in the patch.

## 4. Severity interpretation

This behaves more like an actionable Moderate than an ordinary Moderate. The realistic impact is local or device-mediated DoS through driver/kernel state corruption during PCI error recovery. The theoretical memory corruption concern is higher than a simple NULL dereference because the old code passed an `ieee80211_hw` object to APIs expecting `net_device`, causing fixed wrong-offset reads and writes.

There is no evidence of a strong LPE primitive such as attacker-controlled reclaim, arbitrary write, controlled object replacement, function-pointer control, or refcount takeover. Therefore it should not be rated as a strong Important candidate without further evidence.

## 5. One-sentence report phrase

A type confusion in rtw89 PCI AER handlers caused an `ieee80211_hw` pointer to be treated as `net_device`, allowing wrong-offset kernel reads and writes during PCI error recovery, with realistic impact of local or device-mediated DoS and a weak manual-review concern for broader corruption impact.

## 6. Manual review recommendation

MANUAL CHECK REQUIRED

Reason: the bug is a real kernel type confusion with wrong-offset writes, not merely validation or bookkeeping. The trigger is constrained, but the corruption target and downstream effects should be reviewed manually before closure.

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

Patch: wifi: rtw89: fix wrong pci_get_drvdata type in AER handlers [ Upstream
Commit: aefc30e4a829c1683f6ae999df7f9310c27eae6c
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=aefc30e4a829c1683f6ae999df7f9310c27eae6c

Changed files:
  drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtw89/pci.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=aefc30e4a829c1683f6ae999df7f9310c27eae6c

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

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-74413 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-74413

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:H
  The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H
  The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 5.8

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: 3
  Paranoid ActionableScore: 5

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: MODERATE
KPANIC detected for this report: NO
Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): MODERATE 7.0

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).