# CVE-2026-97474: wifi: iwlwifi: mld: purge async notifications upon nic error

> A use-after-free in the iwlwifi driver causes a kernel panic when handling async notifications after a NIC error, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 24 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 28 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-104015, BELL-CVE-2026-97474, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97474, GHSA-cmqg-p6gh-rwg2, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97474

## What is CVE-2026-97474?

CVE-2026-97474 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 Sep 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: iwlwifi: mld: purge async notifications upon nic error

This fixes a kernel panic in reconfig failure:

1. we have a BSS connection
2. we have a NAN connection
3. FW error occurs
4. reconfig restores the BSS connection
5. however, restoring the NAN connection fails due to a FW error.
6. erroneously, ieee80211_handle_reconfig_failure is called and marks all
   interfaces as not-in-driver (will be fixed in a different patch).
7. mac80211 frees the links of the BSS connection but doesn't tell the
   driver about that, as it thinks that this vif is not in the driver.
8. in ieee80211_stop_device, *ALL* wiphy works are getting flushed
   (erroneously?)
9. Therefore, async_handlers_wk is being executed, processing the
   statistics notification that was received after we restored the BSS
   connection.
10. the notification handler dereferences fw_id_to_bss_conf[id], which is
    now a dangling pointer, as mac80211 already freed this link in (7).
11. On the first access to one of the links fields, we panic.

While this can and should be fixed by removing the call to
ieee80211_handle_reconfig_failure in (6), it is also not a good idea to
carry and maybe handle notifications from a dead FW.

We do purge the notifications when we stop the FW, but in reconfig
failure we stop the FW too late, after the notifications are processed.
In addition, async_handlers_wk can always be scheduled before the
reconfig work.

Purge the notifications immediately when transport notifies about a nic
error.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97474?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-97474?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-97474 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97474 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-97474 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-97474 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 Sep 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-2026-97474 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2026-97474/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97474/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-97474
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97474
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-97474

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97474/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.