High 7.8Published Feb 27, 2025

CVE-2025-21729wifi: rtw89: fix race between cancel_hw_scan and hw_scan completion

Updated under an hour ago (2026-10-22 05:30 UTC)

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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: rtw89: fix race between cancel_hw_scan and hw_scan completion The rtwdev->scanning flag isn't protected by mutex originally, so cancel_hw_scan can pass the condition, but suddenly hw_scan completion unset the flag and calls ieee80211_scan_completed() that will free local->hw_scan_req. Then, cancel_hw_scan raises null-ptr-deref and use-after-free. Fix it by moving the check condition to where protected by mutex. KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000088-0x000000000000008f] CPU: 2 PID: 6922 Comm: kworker/2:2 Tainted: G OE Hardware name: LENOVO 2356AD1/2356AD1, BIOS G7ETB6WW (2.76 ) 09/10/2019 Workqueue: events cfg80211_conn_work [cfg80211] RIP: 0010:rtw89_fw_h2c_scan_offload_be+0xc33/0x13c3 [rtw89_core] Code: 00 45 89 6c 24 1c 0f 85 23 01 00 00 48 8b 85 20 ff ff ff 48 8d RSP: 0018:ffff88811fd9f068 EFLAGS: 00010206 RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: ffff88811fd9f258 RCX: 0000000000000001 RDX: 0000000000000011 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 0000000000000089 RBP: ffff88811fd9f170 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: ffff88811fd9f108 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff88810e47f960 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 000000000000ffff R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8881d6f00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007531dfca55b0 CR3: 00000001be296004 CR4: 00000000001706e0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? show_regs+0x61/0x73 ? __die_body+0x20/0x73 ? die_addr+0x4f/0x7b ? exc_general_protection+0x191/0x1db ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x27/0x30 ? rtw89_fw_h2c_scan_offload_be+0xc33/0x13c3 [rtw89_core] ? rtw89_fw_h2c_scan_offload_be+0x458/0x13c3 [rtw89_core] ? __pfx_rtw89_fw_h2c_scan_offload_be+0x10/0x10 [rtw89_core] ? do_raw_spin_lock+0x75/0xdb ? __pfx_do_raw_spin_lock+0x10/0x10 rtw89_hw_scan_offload+0xb5e/0xbf7 [rtw89_core] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0xe/0x24 ? __mutex_lock.constprop.0+0x40c/0x471 ? __pfx_rtw89_hw_scan_offload+0x10/0x10 [rtw89_core] ? __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x13/0x1f ? mutex_lock+0xa2/0xdc ? __pfx_mutex_lock+0x10/0x10 rtw89_hw_scan_abort+0x58/0xb7 [rtw89_core] rtw89_ops_cancel_hw_scan+0x120/0x13b [rtw89_core] ieee80211_scan_cancel+0x468/0x4d0 [mac80211] ieee80211_prep_connection+0x858/0x899 [mac80211] ieee80211_mgd_auth+0xbea/0xdde [mac80211] ? __pfx_ieee80211_mgd_auth+0x10/0x10 [mac80211] ? cfg80211_find_elem+0x15/0x29 [cfg80211] ? is_bss+0x1b7/0x1d7 [cfg80211] ieee80211_auth+0x18/0x27 [mac80211] cfg80211_mlme_auth+0x3bb/0x3e7 [cfg80211] cfg80211_conn_do_work+0x410/0xb81 [cfg80211] ? __pfx_cfg80211_conn_do_work+0x10/0x10 [cfg80211] ? __kasan_check_read+0x11/0x1f ? psi_group_change+0x8bc/0x944 ? __kasan_check_write+0x14/0x22 ? mutex_lock+0x8e/0xdc ? __pfx_mutex_lock+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx___radix_tree_lookup+0x10/0x10 cfg80211_conn_work+0x245/0x34d [cfg80211] ? __pfx_cfg80211_conn_work+0x10/0x10 [cfg80211] ? update_cfs_rq_load_avg+0x3bc/0x3d7 ? sched_clock_noinstr+0x9/0x1a ? sched_clock+0x10/0x24 ? sched_clock_cpu+0x7e/0x42e ? newidle_balance+0x796/0x937 ? __pfx_sched_clock_cpu+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_newidle_balance+0x10/0x10 ? __kasan_check_read+0x11/0x1f ? psi_group_change+0x8bc/0x944 ? _raw_spin_unlock+0xe/0x24 ? raw_spin_rq_unlock+0x47/0x54 ? raw_spin_rq_unlock_irq+0x9/0x1f ? finish_task_switch.isra.0+0x347/0x586 ? __schedule+0x27bf/0x2892 ? mutex_unlock+0x80/0xd0 ? do_raw_spin_lock+0x75/0xdb ? __pfx___schedule+0x10/0x10 process_scheduled_works+0x58c/0x821 worker_thread+0x4c7/0x586 ? __kasan_check_read+0x11/0x1f kthread+0x285/0x294 ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x29/0x6f ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30 </TASK>

CVSS: 7.8 HIGH (v3.1, CNA)CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weakness (CWE): CWE-416
Known exploited: Not in CISA's KEV catalog
EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days): Not loaded for this CVE
Assigned by: Linux
NVD analysis: Modified
Record last updated: Oct 21, 2026
First seen by InfoSec Signals: Oct 21, 2026

Affected products

Affected products

Linux Linux linux:linux (from the name)	895907779752606f6a4795abfc008509f8e38314 builds before 7368f88b2e62d043cd64fe7bdd5c3c2a2f9795b0; 895907779752606f6a4795abfc008509f8e38314 builds before 2403cb3c235d5e339b580cc3a825493769fadca8; 895907779752606f6a4795abfc008509f8e38314 builds before 5afcd6fcd1e1c1fd6bcc9a360c121d10eddade67; from 895907779752606f6a4795abfc008509f8e38314 before ba4bb0402c60e945c4c396c51f0acac3c3e3ea5c	CNA record
linux linux_kernel linux:linux_kernel	from 5.18 before 6.12.13; from 6.13 before 6.13.2	NVD

References

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7368f88b2e62d043cd64fe7bdd5c3c2a2f9795b0
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2403cb3c235d5e339b580cc3a825493769fadca8patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5afcd6fcd1e1c1fd6bcc9a360c121d10eddade67patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ba4bb0402c60e945c4c396c51f0acac3c3e3ea5cpatch

The CVE record on cve.org NVD's entry

The CVE record is authoritative. Products marked “from the name” were identified from the CNA's free-text names, not a CPE, and are matched less certainly. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.