HIGH Introduced in 2.6.12
iwlwifi P2PBinding Crash
CVE-2026-97432
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
01Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: iwlwifi: mvm: fix P2P-Device binding handling Our binding handling for P2P-Device can run into the following scenario, as observed by our testing: - a station interface is connected on some channel - the P2P-Device does a remain-on-channel (ROC) on that channel - the ROC ends, and the P2P-Device is removed from the binding, but the phy_ctxt pointer is left around as a PHY cache so we don't need to recalibrate to the channel again and again in case it's not shared - a binding update by the station interface, even a removal, will re-add the P2P-Device to the binding - the P2P-Device is removed, which removes the PHY context, but it's still in the binding so the firmware crashes Since the P2P device is removed from the binding and only re- added by unrelated code, but we want to keep the phy_ctxt around as a cache for future ROC usage, fix it by adding a boolean that indicates whether or not the P2P-Device should be added to the binding, and handle that in the binding iterator. That way, the station interface cannot re-add the P2P-Device to the binding when that isn't active.
02KernelScan AI Analysis
Risk summary
A logic error in the Intel iwlwifi WiFi driver causes the firmware to crash when a P2P-Device remain-on-channel operation is followed by a station interface binding update. Any local user who can control WiFi interfaces — including unprivileged users on systems with user namespaces enabled — can trigger this denial of service. Systems without Intel WiFi hardware are unaffected.
Vulnerability analysis
When a P2P-Device remain-on-channel operation ends, the driver removes the P2P-Device from its channel binding but keeps the PHY context pointer cached for future use. A subsequent binding update by an unrelated station interface on the same channel incorrectly re-adds the P2P-Device to the binding. Later, when the P2P-Device is torn down, it frees the PHY context while it is still referenced by the binding, causing the WiFi firmware to crash. The fix introduces a flag that tracks whether a P2P-Device should participate in the binding, and the binding iterator now skips P2P-Device interfaces that are not actively in a binding, preventing station interface operations from re-adding them. The vulnerable path is reachable from a local process with WiFi configuration privileges (CAP_NET_ADMIN), obtainable by an unprivileged user through user namespaces on most distributions, and requires Intel WiFi hardware using the iwlwifi driver.
Lifecycle
03Fix Versions
| Branch | Introduced | Fixed in | Patch commit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5 | 6.5.12 | 6.6 | 7be2fc679c8f |
| 6.6 | 6.6.2 | 6.7 | b74e377cad92 |
| 6.18 | 2.6.12 | 6.18.53 | — |
| mainline | 2.6.12 | 7.2 | — |