Bug 2494924 (CVE-2026-58374)

Summary: CVE-2026-58374 hostapd: hostapd: Denial of Service via malformed Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link Operation association request
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in hostapd. An unauthenticated attacker within wireless range can send a specially crafted management frame during Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) Multi-Link Operation (MLO) association request processing. This crafted frame, containing a malformed Multi-Link Element or Per-STA Profile subelement, can lead to an out-of-bounds write and memory corruption. The primary consequence of this vulnerability is a denial of service (DoS) due to the termination of the hostapd process.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Bug Depends On: 2498949, 2498948    
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-06-30 14:02:22 UTC 
In hostapd before 2.12, a missing bounds check in AP-mode Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) Multi-Link Operation (MLO) association request processing allows an unauthenticated attacker within wireless range to send a crafted management frame containing a malformed Multi-Link Element or Per-STA Profile subelement. In hostapd_process_ml_assoc_req() in src/ap/ieee802_11_eht.c, the received link_id field can be parsed as value 15, but the corresponding links[] storage only has valid entries for lower link IDs (0 through 14). This causes an out-of-bounds write / small memory corruption during association processing before the 4-way handshake. The attack does not require network credentials, prior authentication, or user interaction. The confirmed practical impact is denial of service through hostapd process termination. This affects hostapd v2.11 and newer development snapshots before v2.12 when built with CONFIG_IEEE80211BE enabled. The issue is fixed in hostapd v2.12 and the upstream 2026-1 fixes.