[PATCH wireless] wifi: nxpwifi: fix NULL deref and leak in authenticate

[PATCH wireless] wifi: nxpwifi: fix NULL deref and leak in authenticate

[techyminati]

From: Aryan Sinha <sinha.aryan03@gmail.com>

mgmt is allocated but never checked, and the auth frame is filled in
right after, so a failed kzalloc ends up dereferencing NULL. The skb
error path also returns without freeing mgmt.

Hence, Check the allocation, and free mgmt when the skb alloc fails.

Fixes: 73b01e57ed3e ("wifi: nxp: add nxpwifi driver for IW61x")
Signed-off-by: Aryan Sinha <sinha.aryan03@gmail.com>
---
 drivers/net/wireless/nxp/nxpwifi/cfg80211.c | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/nxp/nxpwifi/cfg80211.c b/drivers/net/wireless/nxp/nxpwifi/cfg80211.c
index 86304ea33..9eb809caa 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/nxp/nxpwifi/cfg80211.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/nxp/nxpwifi/cfg80211.c
@@ -3403,6 +3403,8 @@ nxpwifi_cfg80211_authenticate(struct wiphy *wiphy,
 		pkt_len -= 4;
 
 	mgmt = kzalloc(pkt_len, GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (!mgmt)
+		return -ENOMEM;
 
 	skb = dev_alloc_skb(NXPWIFI_MIN_DATA_HEADER_LEN +
 			    NXPWIFI_MGMT_FRAME_HEADER_SIZE +
@@ -3410,6 +3412,7 @@ nxpwifi_cfg80211_authenticate(struct wiphy *wiphy,
 	if (!skb) {
 		nxpwifi_dbg(adapter, ERROR,
 			    "allocate skb failed for management frame\n");
+		kfree(mgmt);
 		return -ENOMEM;
 	}
 
-- 
2.46.0

Re: [PATCH wireless] wifi: nxpwifi: fix NULL deref and leak in authenticate

[jeff.chen_1]

From: Jeff Chen <jeff.chen_1@oss.nxp.com>

On Thu, Oct 01, 2026 at 09:47:13 PM +0530, techyminati wrote:
> From: Aryan Sinha <sinha.aryan03@gmail.com>
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/nxp/nxpwifi/cfg80211.c b/drivers/net/wireless/nxp/nxpwifi/cfg80211.c
> index 86304ea33..9eb809caa 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/nxp/nxpwifi/cfg80211.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/nxp/nxpwifi/cfg80211.c
> @@ -3403,6 +3403,8 @@ nxpwifi_cfg80211_authenticate(struct wiphy *wiphy,
>  		pkt_len -= 4;
>  
>  	mgmt = kzalloc(pkt_len, GFP_KERNEL);
> +	if (!mgmt)
> +		return -ENOMEM;
>  
>  	skb = dev_alloc_skb(NXPWIFI_MIN_DATA_HEADER_LEN +
>  			    NXPWIFI_MGMT_FRAME_HEADER_SIZE +
> @@ -3410,6 +3412,7 @@ nxpwifi_cfg80211_authenticate(struct wiphy *wiphy,
>  	if (!skb) {
>  		nxpwifi_dbg(adapter, ERROR,
>  			    "allocate skb failed for management frame\n");
> +		kfree(mgmt);
>  		return -ENOMEM;
>  	}
>  

Hi Aryan,

Thanks for the patch.

This issue has already been addressed by another accepted patch:
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/patch/20260820081634.4043666-3-lilinmao@kylinos.cn/

Thanks,
Jeff