Linux Kernel up to 6.12.8 cfg80211_cac_event privilege escalation

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.8. It has been declared as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is the function cfg80211_cac_event. Such manipulation leads to an unknown weakness. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2024-57898. No exploit exists. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.8. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: cfg80211: clear link ID from bitmap during link delete after clean up Currently, during link deletion, the link ID is first removed from the valid_links bitmap before performing any clean-up operations. However, some functions require the link ID to remain in the valid_links bitmap. One such example is cfg80211_cac_event(). The flow is - nl80211_remove_link() cfg80211_remove_link() ieee80211_del_intf_link() ieee80211_vif_set_links() ieee80211_vif_update_links() ieee80211_link_stop() cfg80211_cac_event() cfg80211_cac_event() requires link ID to be present but it is cleared already in cfg80211_remove_link(). Ultimately, WARN_ON() is hit. Therefore, clear the link ID from the bitmap only after completing the link clean-up.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2024-57898 since 01/11/2025. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 230691 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2024-57898), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch ae07daf440d3220d0986e676317a5da66e4f9dfd/b5c32ff6a3a38c74facdd1fe34c0d709a55527fd is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (230691), EUVD (EUVD-2024-53801) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0105). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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