Medium [CVE-2026-74325] use kfree_rcu for offchannel link in mt76_put_vif_phy_link
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-74325 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat package: kernel-rt.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mt76: use kfree_rcu for offchannel link in mt76_put_vif_phy_link mt76_put_vif_phy_link() frees the offchannel mlink with plain kfree() after rcu_assign_pointer(NULL).
However, rcu_assign_pointer only prevents future RCU readers from obtaining the pointer -- it does not wait for existing readers that already hold it via rcu_dereference. The TX datapath (e.g. mt7996_mac_write_txwi) dereferences mlink->wcid and mlink->idx under rcu_read_lock.
If a TX softirq obtained the pointer via rcu_dereference just before the NULL assignment, it will dereference freed memory after the kfree. struct mt76_vif_link already contains an rcu_head field that is unused at this free site -- a developer oversight, since the adjacent kfree_rcu_mightsleep call for rx_sc in the same function shows the pattern was understood.
This vulnerability occurs because the mt76_put_vif_phy_link function improperly deallocates memory for offchannel links. An attacker could exploit this by causing the system to access memory after it has been freed, leading to a use-after-free condition.
This could result in a system crash (denial of service) or potentially allow for arbitrary code execution. Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-825.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
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