CVE-2026-93271

wifi: ath11k: cap out-of-range rx MCS instead of leaving bogus rate

State
Published
Severity
Not scored
Published
Sep 24, 2026
Updated
Oct 19, 2026
Reserved
Sep 17, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: ath11k: cap out-of-range rx MCS instead of leaving bogus rate

ath11k can receive HT/VHT/HE frames whose reported MCS is above the maximum that can be expressed in the corresponding mac80211 rate space (e.g. an HE frame reported with MCS 12, while HE tops out at MCS 11).

The frame itself is valid and decodes correctly, but for such a frame ath11k_dp_rx_h_rate() leaves rx_status->rate_idx set to the out-of-range value and never assigns rx_status->encoding, so it stays RX_ENC_LEGACY from the ath11k_dp_rx_h_ppdu() initialization. Once that frame reaches mac80211 it trips the rate sanity check and the frame is dropped with a splat:

ath11k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Received with invalid mcs in HE mode 12 WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 0 at net/mac80211/rx.c:5433 ieee80211_rx_list+0xb0a/0xe90 [mac80211]

Dropping the frame would discard otherwise valid data, so instead cap the reported MCS to the maximum the rate space can express and deliver the frame. Set rx_status->encoding before the range check and assign rate_idx from the capped value, so a frame with an out-of-range MCS no longer leaves partial or bogus rate metadata behind. Also downgrade the logging level since they are not treated as invalid frames now. The only loss is that such a frame is reported as the capped MCS in the rx rate statistics.

Tested-on: WCN6855 hw2.1 PCI WLAN.HSP.1.1-03125-QCAHSPSWPL_V1_V2_SILICONZ_LITE-3.6510.41

Scores

The record has no CVSS score.

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d to before 6ad04c3e2ec54bf5ec72c81afdd66318a116c539Affected
  • d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d to before a6b951f79e66fc8bd93a537ff1040fbfb567c8bfAffected
  • d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d to before b77bfe6e59b98dff3ccfcf9b45fc27e3db498626Affected
  • d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d to before fb7b9a7209f839c17c66484dfdc84c9a23c6fd2fAffected
  • d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d to before a0b3e6f9645d88f387c4fea546048a91952cd4cdAffected
  • d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d to before 2bb2a778a487305bd378db5fd5014fbdce4ada2cAffected
  • d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d to before ccbd20f2168f581d90265da1a925b9b6472a0b05Affected
  • d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d to before 12b09e478aa7459b7893a695ef77682202f2da83Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 5.6Affected
  • before 5.6Not affected
  • 5.10.270 through 5.10.*Not affected
  • 5.15.221 through 5.15.*Not affected
  • 6.1.188 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.6.157 through 6.6.*Not affected
  • 6.12.110 through 6.12.*Not affected
  • 6.18.52 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 7.2.6 through 7.2.*Not affected
  • 7.3 and laterNot affected

References

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