CVE-2021-47479
kernel: staging: rtl8712: fix use-after-free in rtl8712_dl_fw
Severity
LowRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · May 22, 2024
Updated · November 21, 2025
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
staging: rtl8712: fix use-after-free in rtl8712_dl_fw
Syzbot reported use-after-free in rtl8712_dl_fw(). The problem was in race condition between r871xu_dev_remove() ->ndo_open() callback.
It's easy to see from crash log, that driver accesses released firmware in ->ndo_open() callback. It may happen, since driver was releasing firmware before unregistering netdev. Fix it by moving unregister_netdev() before cleaning up resources.
Call Trace: ... rtl871x_open_fw drivers/staging/rtl8712/hal_init.c:83 [inline] rtl8712_dl_fw+0xd95/0xe10 drivers/staging/rtl8712/hal_init.c:170 rtl8712_hal_init drivers/staging/rtl8712/hal_init.c:330 [inline] rtl871x_hal_init+0xae/0x180 drivers/staging/rtl8712/hal_init.c:394 netdev_open+0xe6/0x6c0 drivers/staging/rtl8712/os_intfs.c:380 __dev_open+0x2bc/0x4d0 net/core/dev.c:1484
Freed by task 1306: ... release_firmware+0x1b/0x30 drivers/base/firmware_loader/main.c:1053 r871xu_dev_remove+0xcc/0x2c0 drivers/staging/rtl8712/usb_intf.c:599 usb_unbind_interface+0x1d8/0x8d0 drivers/usb/core/driver.c:458
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 6CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
CWE-416 · Use After Free