# CVE-2026-98335: wifi: mac80211: abort chanswitch when leaving a mesh

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's mac80211 mesh networking code causes a system crash when leaving a mesh network during a channel switch.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 6 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-106065, BELL-CVE-2026-98335, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98335, GHSA-wmxc-8xr9-g2qr, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98335

## What is CVE-2026-98335?

CVE-2026-98335 is a 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: abort chanswitch when leaving a mesh

The code in ieee80211_stop_mesh() leaves CSA active, but leaving
the mesh released the channel context, so the CSA finalize work
crashes:

  Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address
        0xdffffc0000000003
  KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000018-0x000000000000001f]
  RIP: 0010:ieee80211_put_srates_elem+0x42/0x640 net/mac80211/util.c:3272
  Call Trace:
   ieee80211_mesh_build_beacon+0xa83/0x1b50 net/mac80211/mesh.c:1093
   ieee80211_mesh_rebuild_beacon+0xc7/0x170 net/mac80211/mesh.c:1147
   ieee80211_mesh_finish_csa+0x131/0x210 net/mac80211/mesh.c:1542
   ieee80211_set_after_csa_beacon net/mac80211/cfg.c:4085 [inline]
   __ieee80211_csa_finalize net/mac80211/cfg.c:4133 [inline]
   ieee80211_csa_finalize+0x633/0x1150 net/mac80211/cfg.c:4155
   cfg80211_wiphy_work+0x2ab/0x450 net/wireless/core.c:438

Abort the channel switch properly.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98335?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98335?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98335 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98335 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98335 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98335 is a 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98335 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-2026-98335/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98335/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98335
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98335
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98335

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98335/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.