CVE-2026-98705 wifi: mac80211: account proxy paths against the mesh path limit
An attacker can cause a negative counter in the Linux kernel mesh networking code, bypassing path limits and potentially causing a denial of service.
- 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-2026-98705?
CVE-2026-98705 is a 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: account proxy paths against the mesh path limit
Proxy-path churn can drive the interface path counter negative and let later mesh path additions exceed MESH_MAX_MPATHS.
mesh_path_free_rcu() decrements the interface mpaths counter for entries from both the mesh and proxy path tables, but mpp_path_add() never reserves a slot in that counter. Removing or expiring a proxy path therefore returns a slot that was never charged.
mesh_path_add() uses the same counter to enforce MESH_MAX_MPATHS, so once it falls below the number of installed paths the limit no longer holds.
Reserve the shared quota before allocating a proxy path and release it on every unsuccessful addition. Mesh and proxy paths now share one 1024-entry budget, so mpp_path_add() can return -ENOSPC at that limit.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98705?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98705?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-98705 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98705 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-108572, BELL-CVE-2026-98705, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98705, GHSA-r63c-mg4x-3hrx, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98705.