Linuxnetworking

The Linux 5.6 kernel has been released - but you probably want to hold off on this release if you use the Intel "IWLWIFI" WiFi driver. Learn why in an informative Phoronix article.

For those that are normally spinning their own kernels and punctually upgrading to new releases, you will want to hold off on the newLinux 5.6kernel for the moment if you use the Intel "IWLWIFI" WiFi driver.

Landing in the kernel right ahead of the Linux 5.6 release were a set of mac80211 security fixes sent in by Intel's Johannes Berg. Those fixes in turn broke the IWLWIFI driver that supports Intel's current wireless chipsets on Linux.

The fixesdo not note any particular CVE or offer too much detail. They mention though, "drop data packets if there's no key for them anymore, after there had been one, to avoid sending them in clear when hostapd removes the key before it removes the station and the packets are still queued", "check port authorization again after dequeue, to avoid sending packets if the station is no longer authorized", and other fixes in the name of security.

The link for this article located at Phoronix is no longer available.