# CVE-2026-98704: wifi: mac80211: keep fallback association elements alive

> A use-after-free in the Linux kernel Wi-Fi subsystem allows attackers to execute code or cause denial of service via crafted association responses.

- **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:** 18 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-108771, BELL-CVE-2026-98704, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98704, GHSA-vrf9-cxgg-qw6c, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98704

## What is CVE-2026-98704?

CVE-2026-98704 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 18 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: keep fallback association elements alive

Associating to a non-transmitted MBSSID profile reads freed memory while
determining the operating channel and applying HT capabilities.

When an association response omits WMM, HT, or VHT information,
ieee80211_assoc_config_link() parses the cached BSS IEs and copies the
missing element pointers out of that fallback parse. For a
non-transmitted MBSSID profile those pointers refer to merged-profile
storage owned by the parse object, and the fallback block frees that
object at its end. The copied pointers are used afterwards to determine
the operating channel, configure bandwidth, and apply HT capabilities.

Keep the fallback parse result alive until association setup finishes.

[reorder variable declaration]

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98704?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98704?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98704 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98704 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98704 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98704 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 18 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-2026-98704 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-2026-98704/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98704/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98704
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98704
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98704

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98704/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.