Linux Kernel up to 7.2.5 nl80211 nl80211_color_change/nl80211_parse_beacon allocation of resources

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.5 and classified as critical. The impacted element is the function nl80211_color_change/nl80211_parse_beacon of the component nl80211. Such manipulation leads to allocation of resources. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-90346. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.5 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function nl80211_color_change/nl80211_parse_beacon of the component nl80211. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a allocation of resources vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-770. The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated, in violation of the intended security policy for that actor. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: nl80211: clean up color-change beacon data on errors nl80211_color_change() calls nl80211_parse_beacon() for the beacon_next template, which can allocate params.beacon_next.mbssid_ies and .rnr_ies. A parsing failure returned directly instead of using the out: cleanup, leaking any allocations completed before the error. Allocate the nested attribute table before parsing beacon_next. Its allocation failure can then return before beacon data exists, while a later parsing failure uses out: to release the parsed data.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-90346 since 09/11/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/17/2026). This vulnerability is assigned to T1499 by the MITRE ATT&CK project.

Upgrading to version 7.2.6 or 7.3-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 4e0a67fbe3d9e2e1d6f81dfc607184c6b0abd3dd/927ee844c47ac2aef22c8f7a35f098ff576b398b is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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