CVE-2026-98334 wifi: mac80211: reset state when starting AP fails
A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash by initiating a failed AP start followed by a scan, causing a divide-by-zero error in the Wi-Fi subsystem.
- 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-2026-98334?
CVE-2026-98334 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: reset state when starting AP fails
ieee80211_start_ap() can set enable_beacon (and beacon_int) and fail later, leaving it set forever. Scanning can then attempt to restore beaconing on such an interface, leading to:
Oops: divide error: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI RIP: 0010:mac80211_hwsim_link_info_changed+0xca7/0xf00 Call Trace: drv_link_info_changed+0x413/0x860 net/mac80211/driver-ops.c:495 ieee80211_link_info_change_notify+0x24b/0x3c0 net/mac80211/main.c:427 ieee80211_offchannel_return+0x381/0x580 net/mac80211/offchannel.c:160 __ieee80211_scan_completed+0x993/0xe30 net/mac80211/scan.c:519 ieee80211_scan_work+0x472/0x2010 net/mac80211/scan.c:1193 cfg80211_wiphy_work+0x2b7/0x550 net/wireless/core.c:538
in hwsim. Also, cfg80211 then allows changing the interface type, and the off-channel path getgs confused about beaconing as well, leading to another warning:
WARNING: net/mac80211/driver-ops.c:468 at drv_link_info_changed+0x583/0x880 ieee80211_link_info_change_notify+0x24b/0x3c0 net/mac80211/main.c:427 ieee80211_offchannel_stop_vifs+0x328/0x5c0 net/mac80211/offchannel.c:122 ieee80211_start_sw_scan net/mac80211/scan.c:583 [inline] __ieee80211_start_scan+0xfb6/0x1af0 net/mac80211/scan.c:882
Reset the state on failures to always have it correct.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98334?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98334?
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-2026-98334 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98334 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-106077, BELL-CVE-2026-98334, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98334, GHSA-hc2q-h84g-fgvg, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98334.