Bug 2546383 (CVE-2026-98341)

Summary:	CVE-2026-98341 kernel: wifi: cfg80211: don't free driver-owned scan requests
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified	CC:	akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's cfg80211 wireless subsystem. When a wireless network interface is shut down while an active scan is running, the kernel prematurely frees memory associated with the scan request while the driver is still accessing it. A local user could exploit this race condition to trigger a use-after-free (UAF) condition, potentially leading to a Denial of Service (DoS) via a system crash or privilege escalation.	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-06 09:10:30 UTC

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: cfg80211: don't free driver-owned scan requests

When an interface goes down while a scan is running, cfg80211 completes
the scan towards userspace and frees the scan request. However, the
driver can be convinced that it owns the request, since the cancellation
is (intended to be) asynchronous.

The WARN_ON() in the netdev notifier was meant to catch this, but it's
not actually avoidable, so it triggers and we get a UAF in scan_done().

There doesn't seem to be a great way around it, so just track that the
driver is still convinced it owns the request, and then just free it on
completion if it was already cancelled. Also remove the warnings since
they can trigger in the intended architecture.

Comment 1 gkamathe 2026-10-10 11:49:52 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/security/vulns.git/plain/cve/published/2026/CVE-2026-98341.mbox