CVE-2026-98195 wifi: iwlegacy: fix broadcast stations deallocation
A use-after-free vulnerability in the iwlegacy Wi-Fi driver allows local attackers to cause a denial of service by toggling RF kill during startup.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-98195?
CVE-2026-98195 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 6 Oct 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: iwlegacy: fix broadcast stations deallocation
On the error path of __il4965_up(), il_dealloc_bcast_stations() clears only IL_STA_UCODE_ACTIVE, leaving IL_STA_BCAST set. This causes the same broadcast stations to be deallocated again by __il4965_down().
This can occur when RF_KILL is toggled during driver startup.
To fix clear the entire 'used' field, since we will not do any other operations on the station.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98195?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98195?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2026-98195 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98195 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-106170, BELL-CVE-2026-98195, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98195, GHSA-9fj7-g454-67r4, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98195.