CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98311

HighCVSS 7.8
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.14%

3th percentile - higher than 3% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel virt_wifi driver, virt_wifi_newlink() transferred operstate before registering the network device. If registration failed (e.g. due to an invalid name), free_netdev() freed the object while it remained on lweventlist, causing a use-after-free in a later linkwatch_fire_event(). The fix moves the transfer after netdev_upper_dev_link().

Risk Assessment

A kernel use-after-free can be exploited for privilege escalation or cause a system crash. It affects systems using the virt_wifi virtual interface.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a patched version. Until then, avoid creating virt_wifi interfaces with invalid names.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: virt_wifi: don't transfer operstate before register virt_wifi_newlink() calls netif_stacked_transfer_operstate() before register_netdevice(). If the lower device is dormant, that queues the new netdev on lweventlist while it is still uninitialized. If registration fails after that, for example because of an invalid name such as "bad/name", free_netdev() immediately frees the object. A later linkwatch_fire_event() then use-after-frees the list entry. Move the transfer to after netdev_upper_dev_link(), as macvlan and ipvlan already do.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS