# CVE-2022-49876: wifi: mac80211: fix general-protection-fault in ieee80211_subif_start_xmit()

> A race condition in the Linux kernel Wi-Fi driver causes a null pointer dereference, leading to a system crash when interface status changes during packet transmission.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 May 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49876, GHSA-9jjh-93j4-23f2, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49876

## What is CVE-2022-49876?

CVE-2022-49876 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

wifi: mac80211: fix general-protection-fault in ieee80211_subif_start_xmit()

When device is running and the interface status is changed, the gpf issue
is triggered. The problem triggering process is as follows:
Thread A:                           Thread B
ieee80211_runtime_change_iftype()   process_one_work()
    ...                                 ...
    ieee80211_do_stop()                 ...
    ...                                 ...
        sdata->bss = NULL               ...
        ...                             ieee80211_subif_start_xmit()
                                            ieee80211_multicast_to_unicast
                                    //!sdata->bss->multicast_to_unicast
                                      cause gpf issue

When the interface status is changed, the sending queue continues to send
packets. After the bss is set to NULL, the bss is accessed. As a result,
this causes a general-protection-fault issue.

The following is the stack information:
general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address
0xdffffc000000002f: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000178-0x000000000000017f]
Workqueue: mld mld_ifc_work
RIP: 0010:ieee80211_subif_start_xmit+0x25b/0x1310
Call Trace:
<TASK>
dev_hard_start_xmit+0x1be/0x990
__dev_queue_xmit+0x2c9a/0x3b60
ip6_finish_output2+0xf92/0x1520
ip6_finish_output+0x6af/0x11e0
ip6_output+0x1ed/0x540
mld_sendpack+0xa09/0xe70
mld_ifc_work+0x71c/0xdb0
process_one_work+0x9bf/0x1710
worker_thread+0x665/0x1080
kthread+0x2e4/0x3a0
ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30
</TASK>

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49876?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49876?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49876 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49876 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-49876 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49876 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49876 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49876/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49876/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49876
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49876
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49876

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49876/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.