Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2026-31552

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-04-24
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.10.253 / 5.15.203 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: wlcore: Return -ENOMEM instead of -EAGAIN if there is not enough headroom Since upstream commit e75665dd0968 ("wifi: wlcore: ensure skb headroom before skb_push"), wl1271_tx_allocate() and with it wl1271_prepare_tx_frame() returns -EAGAIN if pskb_expand_head() fails. However, in wlcore_tx_work_locked(), a return value of -EAGAIN from wl1271_prepare_tx_frame() is interpreted as the aggregation buffer being full. This causes the code to flush the buffer, put the skb back at the head of the queue, and immediately retry the same skb in a tight while loop. Because wlcore_tx_work_locked() holds wl->mutex, and the retry happens immediately with GFP_ATOMIC, this will result in an infinite loop and a CPU soft lockup. Return -ENOMEM instead so the packet is dropped and the loop terminates. The problem was found by an experimental code review agent based on gemini-3.1-pro while reviewing backports into v6.18.y.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-835

Crafted input drives a loop whose exit condition is never satisfied, hanging the thread and starving the service of the resource it occupies. A single request can be enough to take a worker down. Remediation is bounding iteration counts and validating the conditions that are supposed to terminate the loop.

General guidance for the infinite loop class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 5.10.250, < 5.10.253>= 5.15.200, < 5.15.203>= 6.1.163, < 6.1.167>= 6.6.124, < 6.6.130>= 6.12.70, < 6.12.78>= 6.18.10, < 6.18.20>= 6.19.1, < 6.19.10= 6.19= 7.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.10.253 / 5.15.203 / 6.1.167 or later
Fixed in 5.10.2535.15.2036.1.167
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel >= 5.10.253, >= 5.15.203, >= 6.1.167, or >= 6.6.130

  1. Check the current kernel version using 'uname -r'.
  2. Upgrade the Linux kernel to one of the fixed versions: 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167, or 6.6.130 (or a later stable release).
  3. Reboot the system to apply the update.
Caveat Standard kernel upgrade risks (potential for regressions in other drivers).

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-31552 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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