CVE-2026-98326 wifi: mac80211: mesh: release the channel if start fails
A Linux kernel bug in mac80211 mesh networking fails to release channel contexts on start failure, causing a warning and potential denial of service.
- 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-2026-98326?
CVE-2026-98326 is a denial of service 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: mac80211: mesh: release the channel if start fails
ieee80211_join_mesh() acquires a channel context and then calls ieee80211_start_mesh(), which can fail. In that case, the chanctx isn't released then interface removal will attempt to unassign it after it's removed from the driver, hitting:
wlan0: Failed check-sdata-in-driver check, flags: 0x0 WARNING: net/mac80211/driver-ops.c:366 at drv_unassign_vif_chanctx ieee80211_assign_link_chanctx __ieee80211_link_release_channel ieee80211_link_release_channel ieee80211_teardown_sdata unregister_netdevice_many_notify _cfg80211_unregister_wdev ieee80211_remove_interfaces ieee80211_unregister_hw mac80211_hwsim_del_radio hwsim_exit_net
Correctly release the channel on start failures.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98326?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98326?
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-2026-98326 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98326 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-106425, BELL-CVE-2026-98326, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98326, GHSA-w5gr-5834-37pm, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98326.