# CVE-2025-71127: wifi: mac80211: Discard Beacon frames to non-broadcast address

> Attackers can bypass Wi-Fi beacon protection by sending unicast Beacon frames, potentially disrupting client connectivity or channel switching.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 14 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-71127, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71127, GHSA-xmv5-397p-vvvx, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-71127, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-71127, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-71127, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-71127, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-71127, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71127

## What is CVE-2025-71127?

CVE-2025-71127 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Jan 2026. 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: Discard Beacon frames to non-broadcast address

Beacon frames are required to be sent to the broadcast address, see IEEE
Std 802.11-2020, 11.1.3.1 ("The Address 1 field of the Beacon .. frame
shall be set to the broadcast address"). A unicast Beacon frame might be
used as a targeted attack to get one of the associated STAs to do
something (e.g., using CSA to move it to another channel). As such, it
is better have strict filtering for this on the received side and
discard all Beacon frames that are sent to an unexpected address.

This is even more important for cases where beacon protection is used.
The current implementation in mac80211 is correctly discarding unicast
Beacon frames if the Protected Frame bit in the Frame Control field is
set to 0. However, if that bit is set to 1, the logic used for checking
for configured BIGTK(s) does not actually work. If the driver does not
have logic for dropping unicast Beacon frames with Protected Frame bit
1, these frames would be accepted in mac80211 processing as valid Beacon
frames even though they are not protected. This would allow beacon
protection to be bypassed. While the logic for checking beacon
protection could be extended to cover this corner case, a more generic
check for discard all Beacon frames based on A1=unicast address covers
this without needing additional changes.

Address all these issues by dropping received Beacon frames if they are
sent to a non-broadcast address.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71127?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-71127?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-71127 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71127 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-2025-71127 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-71127 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Jan 2026. 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-2025-71127 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-2025-71127/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71127/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-71127
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-71127
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-71127

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71127/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.