Technical impact
The vulnerability occurs when a Wi‑Fi virtual interface in the Linux ath12k driver is partially initialized for multi‑link operation but the MLO connection preparation fails before the interface is fully created. The error‑handling path then attempts to delete all link entries only if the interface is marked as created, leaving stale entries in ahvif->links_map. A subsequent initialization of the same link ID triggers a WARN_ON in the kernel, indicating a duplicate mapping. This logic flaw does not provide code execution or privilege escalation, but it causes kernel warnings, potential driver instability, and incorrect interface state management. The weakness is identified as improper handling of data structures (CWE‑459).
Affected Systems
Linux systems running a kernel that includes the ath12k Wi‑Fi driver, particularly those using the QCN9274 hw2.0 driver. No specific kernel version range is documented in the supplied data, so all builds containing the affected ath12k code are potentially impacted.
Risk and Exploitability
A CVSS score of 5.5 classifies the issue as moderate severity. The EPSS score is less than 1 % and the vulnerability is not listed in CISA’s KEV catalog, indicating a low likelihood of exploitation in the wild. Based on the description, it is inferred that an attacker would require local or privileged access to manipulate the Wi‑Fi interface state, and that the flaw results only in kernel warnings and potential stability issues rather than direct denial of service or information disclosure. System administrators should address the issue promptly to eliminate the warning and mitigate potential cascading instability.
