Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98331

Vulnerability details

The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to retaining references to unregistered interfaces in the mac80211 interface list when unregistering a network device without going through ieee80211_if_remove(). A local user can trigger destruction of a network namespace containing a wiphy to cause a denial of service.

Exploitation depends on allocation failures preventing the wiphy from being moved to the initial network namespace. Subsequent hardware unregistration can trigger a kernel BUG.

Affected software

How to mitigate CVE-2026-98331

External References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/20a56e96a6f7b4dfbd13f8732fd2673409fc7ba0
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/821bab0456dfca12acef6df702c8f2477d313227
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a22c02863439993095acd0c3db97fa53cd515f4f
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b735ad1a9aca6080192c1316cf2706e5e1318762
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d45bf731ec7085d2cc2c5d179d3b3b6c743d4fb1
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/eee2efd82867b623982ac51925b5a1812a74c50d

Related Security Bulletins

• Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release in Linux kernel mac80211
• Debian update for linux