CVE-2026-72005

A flaw was found in the rt2x00 WiFi driver within the Linux kernel. During the device probing process, if memory or workqueue allocations fail prematurely, the system attempts a full device teardown. This teardown incorrectly assumes that certain work items have been initialized, leading to invalid operations. An attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability to trigger a system crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).

This vulnerability is rated as having a Low severity for Red Hat Enterprise Linux because exploitation requires attaching specific Ralink wireless hardware alongside induced resource allocation failures during driver initialization. Typical enterprise and server installations do not utilize these wireless network adapters, greatly restricting real-world exposure. Even on systems where compatible hardware is introduced, the flaw cannot be triggered without premature allocation exhaustion during probe routines, bounding the overall risk to local denial of service.

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.