Linux Kernel WiFi RTW88 Driver Memory Leak Vulnerability

A memory leak vulnerability has been identified in the Linux kernel's WiFi RTW88 driver, specifically within the USB probe routine. This leak was detected by the kernel's memory leak tracking feature, Kmemleak, which reported an unreferenced object allocation of 512 bytes. The leak was traced back to the 'rtw_usb_probe' function, part of the RTW88 USB driver. When the driver is unloaded, it leaves a dangling pointer to the leaked memory, indicating that the allocation was not properly freed. The missing deallocation was addressed by adding a line to free the USB data before the driver interface is cleared.

Impact

The vulnerability leads to a memory leak, where allocated memory is not properly released, causing a potential increase in memory usage over time and leading to inefficient resource management.

Remediation

The vulnerability has been fixed in the Linux kernel. Users can apply the latest patches available in the Linux kernel stable tree to address this issue.