HIGH
wlcore WiFi Transmission Loop
CVE-2026-31552
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
KernelScan AI7.5HIGH
01Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: wlcore: Return -ENOMEM instead of -EAGAIN if there is not enough headroom Since upstream commit e75665dd0968 ("wifi: wlcore: ensure skb headroom before skb_push"), wl1271_tx_allocate() and with it wl1271_prepare_tx_frame() returns -EAGAIN if pskb_expand_head() fails. However, in wlcore_tx_work_locked(), a return value of -EAGAIN from wl1271_prepare_tx_frame() is interpreted as the aggregation buffer being full. This causes the code to flush the buffer, put the skb back at the head of the queue, and immediately retry the same skb in a tight while loop. Because wlcore_tx_work_locked() holds wl->mutex, and the retry happens immediately with GFP_ATOMIC, this will result in an infinite loop and a CPU soft lockup. Return -ENOMEM instead so the packet is dropped and the loop terminates. The problem was found by an experimental code review agent based on gemini-3.1-pro while reviewing backports into v6.18.y.
02KernelScan AI Analysis
Risk summary
A WiFi driver bug can cause the system to enter an infinite loop and become unresponsive when memory allocation fails during packet transmission. This creates a denial of service condition where the affected CPU core becomes locked up, potentially making the entire system unusable until reboot.
Vulnerability analysis
Root Cause: The wl1271_tx_allocate() function returns -EAGAIN when pskb_expand_head() fails due to insufficient memory, but the calling function wlcore_tx_work_locked() misinterprets this return code as indicating a full aggregation buffer. This causes the function to flush the buffer, requeue the same skb, and immediately retry in a tight loop while holding wl->mutex.
Attack Surface: This vulnerability affects systems with TI wlcore WiFi hardware. The infinite loop occurs during WiFi packet transmission when memory allocation fails, making it triggerable through normal WiFi traffic under memory pressure conditions. No special privileges are required as this happens in the normal WiFi transmission path.
Fix Mechanism: The patch changes the return value from -EAGAIN to -ENOMEM when pskb_expand_head() fails. This ensures the packet is dropped instead of being retried indefinitely, breaking the infinite loop and preventing CPU soft lockup.
03Fix Versions
| Branch | Fixed in | Patch commit |
|---|---|---|
| 5.10 | 5.10.253 | 980f79364554 |
| 5.15 | 5.15.203 | 12f9eef39e49 |
| 6.1 | 6.1.167 | ceb46b40b021 |
| 6.12 | 6.12.78 | cfa64e2b3717 |
| 6.18 | 6.18.20 | 46c670ff1ff4 |
| 6.19 | 6.19.10 | f2c06d718a7b |
| 6.6 | 6.6.130 | a6dc74209462 |
| mainline | 7.0 | deb353d9bb00 |