CVE-2025-71227 wifi: mac80211: don't WARN for connections on invalid channels
A kernel warning triggered by connecting to invalid Wi-Fi channels can cause a denial of service in the Linux kernel.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-71227?
CVE-2025-71227 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Feb 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: don't WARN for connections on invalid channels
It's not clear (to me) how exactly syzbot managed to hit this, but it seems conceivable that e.g. regulatory changed and has disabled a channel between scanning (channel is checked to be usable by cfg80211_get_ies_channel_number) and connecting on the channel later.
With one scenario that isn't covered elsewhere described above, the warning isn't good, replace it with a (more informative) error message.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71227?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-71227?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2025-71227 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71227 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as AZL-77880, BELL-CVE-2025-71227, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71227, GHSA-c5gg-v573-hv7f, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-71227, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-71227 and 4 more.