CVE-2026-68363

UNRATEDCVSS · not yet scoredTrending — Patch released this week
—
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • No CVSS published and no exploitation signals yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0%CVSS v2: —Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

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

wifi: ath9k: hif_usb: don't dereference hif_dev after re-arming firmware request

ath9k_hif_request_firmware() re-arms an asynchronous firmware load via request_firmware_nowait(), passing hif_dev as the completion context, and then still dereferences hif_dev:

dev_info(&hif_dev->udev->dev, "ath9k_htc: Firmware %s requested\n", hif_dev->fw_name);

The re-armed callback ath9k_hif_usb_firmware_cb() runs on the "events" workqueue and, when the firmware is missing, walks the retry chain into ath9k_hif_usb_firmware_fail() -> complete_all(&hif_dev->fw_done). That releases the wait_for_completion(&hif_dev->fw_done) in a concurrent ath9k_hif_usb_disconnect(), which then kfree()s hif_dev. The trailing dev_info() in the frame that re-armed the request can therefore read freed memory (hif_dev->udev, the first field of struct hif_device_usb):

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ath9k_hif_request_firmware Read of size 8 ... by task kworker/... ath9k_hif_request_firmware ath9k_hif_usb_firmware_cb drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c:1247 request_firmware_work_func Allocated by ...: ath9k_hif_usb_probe drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c Freed by ...: ath9k_hif_usb_disconnect -> kfree drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hif_usb.c

The fw_done barrier only makes disconnect wait for the firmware chain to *terminate*; it does not protect the outer ath9k_hif_request_firmware() frame that re-armed the request and keeps touching hif_dev afterwards.

Drop the post-request dev_info(): it is the only use of hif_dev after the async request is armed, and it is purely informational (the dev_err() on the failure path runs only when request_firmware_nowait() did not arm a callback, so hif_dev is still alive there).

This was first reported by syzbot as a single, non-reproduced crash that was later auto-obsoleted, and was independently rediscovered by the reFuzz fuzzer, which produced a C reproducer (USB-gadget connect/disconnect of an ath9k_htc device whose firmware download fails). The vulnerable code is unchanged and still present in v7.1-rc6, where the slab-use-after-free reproduces under KASAN once the (sub-microsecond) race window is widened.

CVSS v3
—
EchelonGraph score
Not yet assessedNo source has published severity data for this CVE yet — no CVSS score from NVD or a CNA, no GitHub advisory, and it is not in CISA KEV. This is not a rating of zero; we cannot assess it yet.
EG Score
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EG Risk
—
EPSS PROB
0%
EPSS %ILE
8%
KEV
Not listed

Published

August 10, 2026

Last Modified

August 19, 2026

References (8)

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-68363(3)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(2)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
redhatkernel-rt-0:4.18.0-553.163.1.rt7.504.el8_102026-09-15redhat
redhatkernel-0:4.18.0-553.163.1.el8_102026-09-15redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(4 across 3 ecosystems)
Debian:12(2)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
linux6.1.106-1 ... 6.1.99-1 (56 versions)6.1.187-1—
linux-6.126.12.100-1~deb12u16.12.101-1~deb12u1—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
linux6.12.100-1 ... 6.12.96-1 (32 versions)6.12.101-1—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
linux6.12.100-1 ... 7.1~rc7-1~exp1 (160 versions)7.1.6-1—

Additional Vendor Advisories

(1)

Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 7× in last 7d / 37× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-09-18 19:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-09-16 14:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-09-16 05:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-09-16 02:33 UTCVendor advisory
  5. 2026-09-16 02:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-09-12 11:54 UTCVendor advisory
  7. 2026-09-12 11:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-09-11 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-09-11 09:37 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-09-09 05:52 UTCVendor advisory
  11. 2026-09-09 05:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-09-08 22:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-09-07 16:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-09-06 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-09-05 15:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-09-05 03:56 UTCVendor advisory
  17. 2026-09-05 03:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
  18. 2026-09-04 05:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-09-02 14:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-09-01 21:54 UTCVendor advisory
  21. 2026-09-01 21:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  22. 2026-09-01 13:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-09-01 04:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-08-30 19:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-08-30 01:22 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 34 more
  1. 2026-08-29 15:29 UTCVendor advisory
  2. 2026-08-29 15:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-08-28 21:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-26 14:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-26 05:28 UTCVendor advisory
  6. 2026-08-26 05:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-08-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-08-23 00:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-22 23:26 UTCVendor advisory
  10. 2026-08-22 23:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-08-21 23:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-08-20 22:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-19 17:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-08-19 17:21 UTCNVD update
  15. 2026-08-19 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-08-19 16:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-08-19 16:43 UTCMITRE cvelistV5
  18. 2026-08-18 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-08-18 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-08-17 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-08-17 06:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  22. 2026-08-17 06:18 UTCNVD update
  23. 2026-08-17 05:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  24. 2026-08-17 05:24 UTCMITRE cvelistV5
  25. 2026-08-17 01:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
  26. 2026-08-16 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-08-15 01:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-08-13 22:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-08-13 19:26 UTCEG score recompute
  30. 2026-08-13 19:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  31. 2026-08-12 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-08-10 13:24 UTCNVD update
  33. 2026-08-10 12:18 UTCEG score recompute
  34. 2026-08-10 12:17 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked

Frequently asked(4)

What is CVE-2026-68363?
CVE-2026-68363 is a publicly disclosed vulnerability published on August 10, 2026. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath9k: hifusb: don't dereference hifdev after re-arming firmware request ath9khifrequest_firmware() re-arms an asynchronous firmware load via requestfirmwarenowait(), passing hif_dev as the completion context, and then still…
When was CVE-2026-68363 disclosed?
CVE-2026-68363 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on August 10, 2026, with the most recent update on August 19, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-68363 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-68363 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 91.7% of all scored CVEs.
How do I remediate CVE-2026-68363?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-68363, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

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