Linux Kernel up to 7.2.7/7.3-rc3 cfg80211 net/wireless/ibss.c __cfg80211_ibss_joined race condition

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.7/7.3-rc3. Affected is the function __cfg80211_ibss_joined of the file net/wireless/ibss.c of the component cfg80211. This manipulation causes race condition. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-98338. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.7/7.3-rc3. It has been declared as very critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function __cfg80211_ibss_joined of the file net/wireless/ibss.c of the component cfg80211. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a race condition vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-362. The product contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, and the code sequence requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence that is operating concurrently. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: cfg80211: ibss: ref BSS entry for joined event When the IBSS is joined, we only record the BSSID/channel in the event and look up the BSS entry when processing it. However, that's racy, e.g. a new scan with NL80211_SCAN_FLAG_FLUSH can remove it, causing a warning in the event work: !bss WARNING: net/wireless/ibss.c:37 at __cfg80211_ibss_joined+0x3d3/0x440 Workqueue: cfg80211 cfg80211_event_work cfg80211_process_wdev_events+0x39f/0x5b0 net/wireless/util.c:1144 cfg80211_process_rdev_events+0xa1/0x110 net/wireless/util.c:1179 cfg80211_event_work+0x2f/0x40 net/wireless/core.c:393 Do the lookup early (the driver is expected to only join an IBSS that has a BSS entry) and keep a reference to it.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-98338 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/06/2026).

Upgrading to version 7.2.8 or 7.3-rc4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b0e3f019e461ac42e45aa3ec1216cefaca2f4a8b/708f9d43d6a2eb9c6b83fe62af628de9dffd9314 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
• 7.2.6
• 7.2.7
• 7.3-rc1
• 7.3-rc2
• 7.3-rc3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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