CVE-2026-31604 json
wifi: rtw88: fix device leak on probe failure
published 2026-04-24 6 mo ago modified 2026-11-06 3 d ago also EUVD-2026-25497
- cvss
- 5.5
- version 3.1, NVD
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.1%
- EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 2%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
wifi: rtw88: fix device leak on probe failure
Driver core holds a reference to the USB interface and its parent USB device while the interface is bound to a driver and there is no need to take additional references unless the structures are needed after disconnect.
This driver takes a reference to the USB device during probe but does not to release it on all probe errors (e.g. when descriptor parsing fails).
Drop the redundant device reference to fix the leak, reduce cargo culting, make it easier to spot drivers where an extra reference is needed, and reduce the risk of further memory leaks.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 6.6.136, 6.12.83, 6.18.24, 6.19.14, 7.0.1, 7.1
- linux Debian 13 6.12.85-1
- linux Debian 14 6.19.14-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31604
- linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-136.136
- linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-27.27
- linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.64
- linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1008.8
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1064.72
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1007.7
- linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1059.67
- linux-ibm Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.62
ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31604
Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0
- kernel-source Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-51.1
- kernel-default Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-51.1
- kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-51.1
- kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-51.1
- kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-51.1
- kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.37.1
- kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.37.1
- kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:23244-1SUSE-SU-2026:23241-1SUSE-SU-2026:23194-1SUSE-SU-2026:23193-1SUSE-SU-2026:23237-1SUSE-SU-2026:23068-1
- kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
- dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
- kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
- kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
- kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
- kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
- kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
- kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21555-1openSUSE-SU-2026:10703-1
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/f632987306bce9242cdfcf911ee0b2c9455e05a3 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/a4f4371d194dfa5473cc961f86194084b1b13a69 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/89a9c1bc7d797120bcc290864e0cb10a440a677f commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/af7307e96dad00bcc2675dac650d8558a52f2c6f commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/25a827b7e1d5747a255bdc757f1d3e9e1e8a4e2a commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/bbb15e71156cd9f5e1869eee7207a06ea8e96c39 commit
Vendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2026-31604 updated cvss 5.5
kernel: wifi: rtw88: fix device leak on probe failure
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernelaffected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 morenot affected: vulnerable code not present
Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf
CISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
- Assessed
- 3 d ago
Exploit prediction
0.12% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVD | 3.1 | 5.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Weakness
-
- CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
- Technology feeds
References
-
git.kernel.org
/stable/c/f632987306bce9242cdfcf911ee0b2c9455e05a3
patch
-
git.kernel.org
/stable/c/a4f4371d194dfa5473cc961f86194084b1b13a69
patch
-
git.kernel.org
/stable/c/89a9c1bc7d797120bcc290864e0cb10a440a677f
patch
-
git.kernel.org
/stable/c/af7307e96dad00bcc2675dac650d8558a52f2c6f
patch
-
git.kernel.org
/stable/c/25a827b7e1d5747a255bdc757f1d3e9e1e8a4e2a
patch
-
git.kernel.org
/stable/c/bbb15e71156cd9f5e1869eee7207a06ea8e96c39
patch
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-31604
- NVD CVE-2026-31604
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