# CVE-2026-98824: wifi: mac80211: validate TX status rate metadata

> Malformed Wi-Fi TX status metadata can cause out-of-bounds indexing in the Linux kernel, potentially leading to memory corruption or denial of service.

- **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:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-109313, BELL-CVE-2026-98824, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98824, GHSA-x3j6-9gf8-hfpp, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98824

## What is CVE-2026-98824?

CVE-2026-98824 is a memory corruption 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: validate TX status rate metadata

minstrel_ht_tx_status() converts the HT/VHT rate reported in a TX status
into a group and rate index and uses those to index the minstrel_ht rate
tables.  The existing validation only checked that an entry was present
and had tries recorded; it did not check that the reported MCS, spatial
stream count and bandwidth are representable by the tables, so malformed
metadata passed to minstrel_ht_get_stats() or
minstrel_ht_ri_get_stats() could be used as an out-of-bounds index.

Validate the rate metadata in the common TX status path instead of only
in minstrel_ht, since the values are used by more than rate control.
The legacy ieee80211_tx_rate array and the rate_info based entries are
sanitized in ieee80211_tx_status_ext() and ieee80211_tx_rate_update()
before any consumer runs: an entry that does not describe a valid rate
for its encoding is dropped.  minstrel_ht keeps the checks that depend
on its own tables, i.e. the supported number of spatial streams, the MCS
group size and the supported bandwidths.

This does not take away the driver's responsibility to report sane
values, it only prevents a single bad report from corrupting mac80211
state.  No WARN_ON() is added: with panic_on_warn a driver bug would
otherwise turn into a denial of service.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98824?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98824?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98824 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98824 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98824 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98824 is a memory corruption 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-2026-98824 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-2026-98824/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98824/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98824
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98824
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98824

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98824/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.