CVE-2026-98824
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.
Read full descriptionShow less
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.
CVSS
NVD hasn't assigned a CVSS score to this CVE (common since the April 2026 policy change).
Exploitation probability (EPSS)
- Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- 0.19 %
- Percentile among all scored CVEs
- 8
- Score date
- 10/20/2026
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System, FIRST) estimates how likely a vulnerability is to be exploited in the wild within 30 days. It complements CVSS (impact) and CISA KEV (confirmed exploitation).
Affected technologies (1)
⚠ AI-inferred from the description — NVD hasn't analyzed this CVE yet, these aren't verified CPEs.
References
Raw JSON (NVD)
Show
{
"id": "CVE-2026-98824",
"cveTags": [],
"metrics": {},
"affected": [
{
"source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
"affectedData": [
{
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"vendor": "Linux",
"product": "Linux",
"versions": [
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "a5f69d94d8e239b48299abdd836840b7447866ab",
"lessThan": "b1961a61ab6fbe11f16f7f9b64c57a9908c6c3a8",
"versionType": "git"
},
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "a5f69d94d8e239b48299abdd836840b7447866ab",
"lessThan": "6bdcdb31318c10e6369cff8e5b32c37397e98091",
"versionType": "git"
}
],
"programFiles": [
"net/mac80211/rc80211_minstrel_ht.c",
"net/mac80211/status.c"
],
"defaultStatus": "unaffected"
},
{
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"vendor": "Linux",
"product": "Linux",
"versions": [
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "3.3"
},
{
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "0",
"lessThan": "3.3",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "7.2.10",
"versionType": "semver",
"lessThanOrEqual": "7.2.*"
},
{
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "7.3",
"versionType": "original_commit_for_fix",
"lessThanOrEqual": "*"
}
],
"programFiles": [
"net/mac80211/rc80211_minstrel_ht.c",
"net/mac80211/status.c"
],
"defaultStatus": "affected"
}
]
}
],
"published": "2026-10-18T16:17:36.630",
"references": [
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6bdcdb31318c10e6369cff8e5b32c37397e98091",
"source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b1961a61ab6fbe11f16f7f9b64c57a9908c6c3a8",
"source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
}
],
"vulnStatus": "Received",
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nwifi: mac80211: validate TX status rate metadata\n\nminstrel_ht_tx_status() converts the HT/VHT rate reported in a TX status\ninto a group and rate index and uses those to index the minstrel_ht rate\ntables. The existing validation only checked that an entry was present\nand had tries recorded; it did not check that the reported MCS, spatial\nstream count and bandwidth are representable by the tables, so malformed\nmetadata passed to minstrel_ht_get_stats() or\nminstrel_ht_ri_get_stats() could be used as an out-of-bounds index.\n\nValidate the rate metadata in the common TX status path instead of only\nin minstrel_ht, since the values are used by more than rate control.\nThe legacy ieee80211_tx_rate array and the rate_info based entries are\nsanitized in ieee80211_tx_status_ext() and ieee80211_tx_rate_update()\nbefore any consumer runs: an entry that does not describe a valid rate\nfor its encoding is dropped. minstrel_ht keeps the checks that depend\non its own tables, i.e. the supported number of spatial streams, the MCS\ngroup size and the supported bandwidths.\n\nThis does not take away the driver's responsibility to report sane\nvalues, it only prevents a single bad report from corrupting mac80211\nstate. No WARN_ON() is added: with panic_on_warn a driver bug would\notherwise turn into a denial of service."
}
],
"lastModified": "2026-10-19T10:19:46.450",
"sourceIdentifier": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
}