---
id: CVE-2023-53602
title: 'wifi: ath11k: fix memory leak in WMI firmware stats'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  wifi: ath11k: fix memory leak in WMI firmware stats

  Memory allocated for firmware pdev, vdev and beacon statistics
  are not released during rmmod.

  Fix it by calling at…
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d <
    86f9330a49d1464849482298dd34d361859183eb
  - >-
    Linux >= d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d <
    55248d36beb79d3a61c9fb3122dc377fff523c89
  - >-
    Linux >= d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d <
    6aafa1c2d3e3fea2ebe84c018003f2a91722e607
  - Linux 5.6
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-11-05T20:25:07.067883Z'
published: '2025-10-04'
updated: '2026-11-05'
sourceUpdated: '2026-11-05T20:31:16.735Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53602'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/86f9330a49d1464849482298dd34d361859183eb'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/55248d36beb79d3a61c9fb3122dc377fff523c89'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6aafa1c2d3e3fea2ebe84c018003f2a91722e607'
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00146
epssPercentile: 0.03901
ingestedAt: '2026-11-05T22:38:31.816Z'
---

## Overview

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

wifi: ath11k: fix memory leak in WMI firmware stats

Memory allocated for firmware pdev, vdev and beacon statistics
are not released during rmmod.

Fix it by calling ath11k_fw_stats_free() function before hardware
unregister.

While at it, avoid calling ath11k_fw_stats_free() while processing
the firmware stats received in the WMI event because the local list
is getting spliced and reinitialised and hence there are no elements
in the list after splicing.

Tested-on: QCN9074 hw1.0 PCI WLAN.HK.2.7.0.1-01744-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1

## Affected

- `Linux >= d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d < 86f9330a49d1464849482298dd34d361859183eb`
- `Linux >= d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d < 55248d36beb79d3a61c9fb3122dc377fff523c89`
- `Linux >= d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d < 6aafa1c2d3e3fea2ebe84c018003f2a91722e607`
- `Linux 5.6`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.