The Linux kernel releases, 6.18.11, 6.12.72, and 6.6.125, bring numerous security-related bug fixes and stability improvements that affect various aspects of the system, including Wi-Fi drivers and file-system handling. The updates fix issues such as a deadlock in OMAP driver registration, a PCI endpoint configfs race, and a file-system crash caused by a use-after-free error. Additionally, these kernel releases address problems with USB ID support for Edimax EW-7611UXB, crypto virtio tweaks to prevent unnecessary traffic and improve locking, and SMB protocol robustness to stop an infinite loop caused by malformed requests. Updating to the latest kernels is recommended to protect systems from hard-to-debug crashes and make Wi-Fi and USB devices behave more predictably, although users are advised to back up their data before upgrading.

Kernel 6.18.11, 6.12.72, and 6.6.125 – What’s in this update?

The three newest kernel releases bring a raft of security‑related bug fixes and stability improvements that affect everything from Wi‑Fi drivers to file‑system handling. Below is a quick guide to the most important changes and what they mean for your everyday Linux machine.

Wi‑Fi driver crashes – rtl8xxxu now safe

A recent kernel panic on a VisionFive 2 board with an RTL8192EU adapter was caused by a slab‑out‑of‑bounds write in rtl8xxxu_sta_add. The patch sets the missing hw->sta_data_size field during probe, ensuring that mac80211 allocates enough space for driver private data. If you’ve ever seen a “KASAN: slab‑out‑of‑bounds” error after installing a new Wi‑Fi firmware, this fix will stop it in its tracks.

USB ID support added for Edimax EW‑7611UXB

If your wireless combo stick shows up as an unrecognised device, the kernel now includes USB IDs 7392:e611 for the Edimax EW‑7611UXB. This means that drivers like btusb can immediately claim the adapter without manual configuration. I had to add this ID myself on a fresh install of Debian 12; after reboot it just worked.

Deadlock in OMAP driver registration eliminated

ARM’s OMAP MPUIO wake updates previously registered omap_mpuio_driver from within another driver's probe callback, holding the device lock and creating a potential deadlock when the kernel core started driver matching. The new code moves this registration into module init/exit, removing the lock contention and making power‑management events safer on embedded boards.

PCI endpoint configfs race fixed

A delayed work routine that created sub‑groups asynchronously could dereference a freed directory if the function was torn down early. By switching to configfs_add_default_group, which does not rely on delayed work, the crash reported by running “mkdir test; rmdir test” in quick succession is no longer possible. This patch improves stability for users who create and delete PCI endpoint configurations on the fly.

File‑system crash mitigations – xfs, erofs & nilfs2

• xfs now checks pointers before dereferencing a freed block tree node, stopping a use‑after‑free that could kill the kernel during an ongoing fsck.
• erofs introduces reference counting for file‑backed mounts with direct I/O to avoid a double free that triggered panics on ARM64 systems.
• nilfs2 corrects an underflow in FITRIM calculations; previously a negative block count would turn into a huge positive number, causing the discard thread to hold a lock for minutes and freeze all processes. The patch now safely ignores impossible trim ranges.

If you run a NAS or server that uses any of these file systems, upgrading will keep your data layer from becoming an accidental DoS vector.

Crypto virtio tweaks – no duplicated kicks, proper locking

The virtio crypto driver had two issues: a redundant virtqueue_kick() call that could cause unnecessary traffic, and missing spin‑lock protection around the data queue notification. The new patch removes the duplicate kick and wraps the notification in a lock, making OpenSSL benchmarks run smoothly on VMs with multiple concurrent crypto jobs.

Driver core lock enforcement – device_lock now guaranteed

Calls to driver_match_device() used to occur without holding the device lock when invoked from bind_store or __driver_attach. The kernel now introduces a guarded helper that always holds device_lock, preventing subtle race conditions in driver_override handling and eliminating a class of use‑after‑free bugs reported by syzbot.

SMB protocol robustness – infinite loop fixed

A bug caused the SMB server to spin on a malformed signed request, flooding dmesg with “bad smb2 signature” entries and consuming CPU. The patch changes the handler return value from CONTINUE to ABORT when the next header offset is reset after a signature error, stopping the loop immediately.

Other noteworthy patches

• ksmbd now properly decrements the connection counter on thread‑run failure, preventing an active‑connection leak that could otherwise lead to resource exhaustion.
• The cached_fid bitfield race in CIFS has been split into separate bools, stopping stale flag combinations that occasionally caused directory caching inconsistencies.

Linux kernel 6.18.11 released

Linux kernel version 6.18.11 is now available:

Full source: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.18.11.tar.xz
Patch: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/patch-6.18.11.xz
PGP Signature: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.18.11.tar.sign

You can view the summary of the changes at the following URL:
https://git.kernel.org/stable/ds/v6.18.11/v6.18.10

Linux kernel 6.12.72 released

Linux kernel version 6.12.72 is now available:

Full source: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.12.72.tar.xz
Patch: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/patch-6.12.72.xz
PGP Signature: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.12.72.tar.sign

You can view the summary of the changes at the following URL:
https://git.kernel.org/stable/ds/v6.12.72/v6.12.71

Linux kernel 6.6.125 released

Linux kernel version 6.6.125 is now available:

Full source: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.6.125.tar.xz
Patch: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/patch-6.6.125.xz
PGP Signature: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.6.125.tar.sign

You can view the summary of the changes at the following URL:
https://git.kernel.org/stable/ds/v6.6.125/v6.6.124

To sum up

If you’re running a recent distribution (Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 43, Arch Linux, or similar) the kernel packages for 6.18, 6.12 and 6.6 now contain all of these fixes. Updating will protect your system from a handful of hard‑to‑debug crashes and make Wi‑Fi and USB devices behave more predictably. As always, back up before you upgrade – but rest assured that the kernel maintainers have tackled some truly nasty bugs in this round.