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CVE-2026-43172
wifi: iwlwifi: fix 22000 series SMEM parsing
Published 2026-05-06 (5 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem drivers/net. Debian urgency: not yet assigned.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-43172 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | vulnerable | 6.1.190-1 | No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series bookworm tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for bookworm have historically landed a median of 23 days after publication. |
| Debian 13trixie | vulnerable | 6.12.113-1 | No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series trixie tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for trixie have historically landed a median of 11 days after publication. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 6.19.6-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.19.6-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 6.19.6-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.19.6-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
If the firmware were to report three LMACs (which doesn't exist in hardware) then using "fwrt->smem_cfg.lmac[2]" is an overrun of the array. Reject such and use IWL_FW_CHECK instead of WARN_ON in this function.
Where it lives
The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.
drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/fw/smem.c
- What this is
- INTEL WIRELESS WIFI LINK (iwlwifi)MAINTAINERS section matched on drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/ · linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org · Supported
Show whether Debian builds this, per release
Not established. This site could not find the build rule for the affected file in the kernel trees Debian ships, so it has no answer about whether Debian compiles this code. Read that as unknown, never as absent.
- bookworm, trixie, forky, sid?
- ?
- not established - no Makefile entry for the affected file
Where a release above reads "not established", no build rule for the affected file was found in that release's kernel tree. That is a gap in this lookup, not a finding that the code is absent.
From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS
Signals
- Published
- 2026-05-06 (5 months ago)source
- CVSS
- 8.8 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it - Attack vector
- adjacent network (AV:A)source
- EPSS
- 0.38%, higher than 29.9% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- not yet assignedsource
- Subsystem
- drivers/net
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 5.8 | 6.18.16 | 1d49a42717bd |
| 5.8 | 6.19.6 | 2b4b1510aaaf |
| 5.8 | 7.0 | 58192b9ce09b |
Why the CNA scored it this way
Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source
- AV:AAttack vector, adjacent network
- The vulnerable path is in the Wi-Fi device/firmware control path during iwlwifi start/restart when the host parses a firmware-supplied SHARED_MEM_CFG_CMD response, not a routed IP service. For the affected Wi-Fi subsystem, the highest reasonable external exposure is an adjacent wireless attacker able to drive malicious firmware/device behavior.
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- There is no race or complex state requirement once a malformed response is supplied. Setting lmac_num to 3 deterministically reaches the out-of-bounds write in the 22000-series parser.
- PR:NPrivileges required, none
- The malformed firmware response is parsed by the kernel driver without OS credential checks and before any Wi-Fi peer authentication boundary matters. In the adjacent attacker model, no local account or kernel privilege is required.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- The parser runs automatically during normal Wi-Fi device start or restart. Exploitation does not require a victim to open a file, mount anything, or perform a special action.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- The corruption affects host kernel iwlwifi driver state within the same kernel security authority. It does not inherently cross a VM, IOMMU, or separate authorization boundary.
- C:HConfidentiality impact, high
- The bug is an attacker-controlled out-of-bounds write past fwrt->smem_cfg.lmac into adjacent iwl_fw_runtime state. Kernel memory corruption is reasonably leverageable for high confidentiality impact.
- I:HIntegrity impact, high
- Firmware-controlled 32-bit values are written beyond the two-element LMAC array into adjacent kernel driver fields. This is an out-of-bounds write with potential for arbitrary kernel state modification or control-flow influence.
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- Even without full exploitation, corrupting adjacent iwlwifi runtime/debug/workqueue state can crash or destabilize the kernel. Kernel oops, panic, or persistent Wi-Fi driver failure constitutes high availability impact.