wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() has three error paths, but only two of them free the skb. The first error path (ieee80211_tx_prepare() returning TX_DROP) does not free it, while invoke_tx_handlers() failure and the fragmentation check both do. Add kfree_skb() to the first error path so all three are consistent, and remove the now-redundant frees in callers (ath9k, mt76, mac80211_hwsim) to avoid double-free. Document the skb ownership guarantee in the function's kdoc.
- Products
- Kernel
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175, 6.12.84, 6.18.20, 6.19.10, 6.6.136
- CVEs
- CVE-2026-23444
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 2 Nov 2026, 21:31 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure
core-osv · Original sourcePublished 3 Apr 2026, 15:15 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() has three error paths, but only two of them free the skb. The first error path (ieee80211_tx_prepare() returning TX_DROP) does not free it, while invoke_tx_handlers() failure and the fragmentation check both do. Add kfree_skb() to the first error path so all three are consistent, and remove the now-redundant frees in callers (ath9k, mt76, mac80211_hwsim) to avoid double-free. Document the skb ownership guarantee in the function's kdoc.
osv:CVE-2026-23444
Kernel
Fixed versions: 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175, 6.6.136, 6.12.84, 6.18.20, 6.19.10
Complete source record
{
"id": "f749368672b62b7533afe6d835dd102455dd119c5e456b4f62ad6b0fab7bc577",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23444",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure",
"summary": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() has three error paths, but only two of them free the skb. The first error path (ieee80211_tx_prepare() returning TX_DROP) does not free it, while invoke_tx_handlers() failure and the fragmentation check both do. Add kfree_skb() to the first error path so all three are consistent, and remove the now-redundant frees in callers (ath9k, mt76, mac80211_hwsim) to avoid double-free. Document the skb ownership guarantee in the function's kdoc.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-23444",
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"modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:23.781349465Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
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"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23444",
"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git"
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"provider_metadata": {
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"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
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"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 490285,
"published_at": "2026-04-03T15:15:28.464+00:00"
}