CVE-2026-98339 wifi: cfg80211: don't filter by BSS type when removing stale entries
A rogue AP can trigger a kernel warning and potential denial of service in the Linux Wi-Fi subsystem by manipulating BSS type entries during association updates.
- 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-2026-98339?
CVE-2026-98339 is a high-severity 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: cfg80211: don't filter by BSS type when removing stale entries
When an assoc AP switches to a channel that already has a BSS entry, cfg80211_update_assoc_bss_entry() removes that entry before rehashing the real one, since the two would otherwise collide in the BSS rbtree.
The lookup for that entry also required it to match the connection's BSS type, so an entry advertising e.g. the IBSS capability bit was left in place, and the following cfg80211_rehash_bss() then ran into it:
WARN_ON(!cmp)
Changing the type shouldn't really happen, but can be triggered by a rogue AP/device, so drop the check and remove any entries matching the comparison.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98339?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98339?
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-2026-98339 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98339 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-106101, BELL-CVE-2026-98339, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98339, GHSA-8rfq-q292-hgch, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98339.