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CVE-2026-23396 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: fix NULL deref in…

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: fix NULL deref in mesh_matches_local() mesh_matches_local() unconditionally dereferences ie->mesh_config to compare mesh configuration parameters. When called from mesh_rx_csa_frame(), the parsed action-frame elements may not contain a Mesh Configuration IE, leaving ie->mesh_config NULL and triggering a kernel NULL pointer dereference. The other two callers are already safe: - ieee80211_mesh_rx_bcn_presp() checks !elems->mesh_config before calling mesh_matches_local() - mesh_plink_get_event() is only reached through mesh_process_plink_frame(), which checks !elems->mesh_config, too mesh_rx_csa_frame() is the only caller that passes raw parsed elements to mesh_matches_local() without guarding mesh_config. An adjacent attacker can exploit this by sending a crafted CSA action frame that includes a valid Mesh ID IE but omits the Mesh Configuration IE, crashing the kernel. The captured crash log: Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address ... KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] Workqueue: events_unbound cfg80211_wiphy_work [...] Call Trace: <TASK> ? __pfx_mesh_matches_local (net/mac80211/mesh.c:65) ieee80211_mesh_rx_queued_mgmt (net/mac80211/mesh.c:1686) [...] ieee80211_iface_work (net/mac80211/iface.c:1754 net/mac80211/iface.c:1802) [...] cfg80211_wiphy_work (net/wireless/core.c:426) process_one_work (net/kernel/workqueue.c:3280) ? assign_work (net/kernel/workqueue.c:1219) worker_thread (net/kernel/workqueue.c:3352) ? __pfx_worker_thread (net/kernel/workqueue.c:3385) kthread (net/kernel/kthread.c:436) [...] ret_from_fork_asm (net/arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:255) </TASK> This patch adds a NULL check for ie->mesh_config at the top of mesh_matches_local() to return false early when the Mesh Configuration IE is absent.

Affected products and versions

Product Affected versions Fixed in
Linux 7.0 earliest → < 7.0 7.0
Linux 6.19 earliest → < 6.19.10 6.19.10
Linux 6.18 earliest → < 6.18.20 6.18.20
Linux 6.12 earliest → < 6.12.78 6.12.78
Linux 6.6 earliest → < 6.6.130 6.6.130
Linux 6.1 earliest → < 6.1.167 6.1.167
Linux 5.15 earliest → < 5.15.203 5.15.203
Linux 5.10 earliest → < 5.10.253 5.10.253
Linux 2.6.26 No fix stated
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Product Affected versions Fixed in
SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP - GNU/Linux subsystem Versions not published
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