# CVE-2026-98348: wifi: libipw: reject too-short association responses

> A buffer overflow in the Linux kernel libipw Wi-Fi driver allows attackers to read past receive buffers via malformed association responses, potentially causing crashes or code execution.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H`)
- **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-106086, BELL-CVE-2026-98348, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98348, GHSA-jch8-34rh-p8cm, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98348

## What is CVE-2026-98348?

CVE-2026-98348 is a high-severity memory corruption 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: libipw: reject too-short association responses

libipw_handle_assoc_resp() reads the capability, status and aid fields
of the 30-byte association response prefix and then computes the
information element length as

	stats->len - sizeof(*frame)

stats->len is a u16 and sizeof() has type size_t, so the subtraction is
evaluated as size_t and wraps instead of going negative.  Truncating
that to the u16 length parameter of libipw_parse_info_param() turns a
frame shorter than the fixed fields into a length near 64 KiB, and the
parser then reads past the receive buffer.

Both the ipw2100 and ipw2200 management receive paths reach this
function having established only that the frame carries the generic
24-byte three-address header.

Reject the frame before any fixed field is touched.

Found by an AI-assisted review of length arithmetic in management frame
parsers.  Verified with a KUnit case under Generic KASAN on arm64 under
QEMU; I do not have the hardware, so it is not tested on a real device.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98348?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98348?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98348 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98348 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98348 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98348 is a high-severity memory corruption 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-2026-98348 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-2026-98348/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98348/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98348
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98348
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98348

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98348/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.