CVE-2026-98182
Received
Received - Intake
NULL Pointer Dereference in Linux Kernel WiFi Driver
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-98182, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-10-06
Last updated on: 2026-10-06
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
wifi: mac80211: refuse to make a monitor active when it has no queue
A monitor interface only gets a TXQ if it's created active, and one can't
be added later. Setting the flag on a down interface is still allowed, so
the driver is handed a monitor with no queue. ath9k dereferences it:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000066
RIP: 0010:ath_tx_node_init+0x49/0x170 [ath9k]
ath9k_add_interface+0x10c/0x140 [ath9k]
drv_add_interface+0x54/0x250 [mac80211]
ieee80211_do_open+0x32f/0x800 [mac80211]
Reached with CAP_NET_ADMIN by "iw dev X set monitor active" followed by
"ip link set X up". RTNL is held, so netlink operations block behind it.
Refuse the flag when there is no queue to give.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 79af1f866193de29e65a4dba7d0dab14b0c0ff93 |
| Linux | Linux | 79af1f866193de29e65a4dba7d0dab14b0c0ff93 |
| Linux | Linux | 79af1f866193de29e65a4dba7d0dab14b0c0ff93 |
| Linux | Linux | 79af1f866193de29e65a4dba7d0dab14b0c0ff93 |
| Linux | Linux | 4.15 |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
