CVE-2026-98424 wifi: cfg80211: undo netns switch if renaming the wiphy fails
A local attacker can trigger a kernel warning and potential system instability by causing a wiphy rename failure during a network namespace switch.
- 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-2026-98424?
CVE-2026-98424 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 14 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: undo netns switch if renaming the wiphy fails
Once all the interfaces have been moved, cfg80211_switch_netns() moves the wiphy itself by setting its network namespace and then renaming it, which makes sysfs move it. The rename can fail (but only on allocation failures), leaving things mixed up and hitting the warning there.
Ignoring it isn't great, undo the move and let the change fail in this case. If undo fails then WARN, then things would again be stuck in two different network namespaces.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98424?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98424?
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-2026-98424 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98424 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-108099, BELL-CVE-2026-98424, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98424, GHSA-ppjv-3xmq-grw5, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98424.