# CVE-2026-98704: wifi: mac80211: keep fallback association elements alive

CVE-2026-98704 is fixed in 2 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98704, released October 19, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Routine.

- Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-98704
- Priority: Routine
- CVSS: 6.4 (Moderate)
- EPSS: 0.0018
- CISA KEV: not listed
- Exploited (vendor report): no
- Publicly disclosed: no
- Published: Oct 18, 2026
- Vendor advisory: https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98704

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:  wifi: mac80211: keep fallback association elements alive  Associating to a non-transmitted MBSSID profile reads freed memory while determining the operating channel and applying HT capabilities.  When an association response omits WMM, HT, or VHT information, ieee80211_assoc_config_link() parses the cached BSS IEs and copies the missing element pointers out of that fallback parse. For a non-transmitted MBSSID profile those pointers refer to merged-profile storage owned by the parse object, and the fallback block frees that object at its end. The copied pointers are used afterwards to determine the operating channel, configure bandwidth, and apply HT capabilities.  Keep the fallback parse result alive until association setup finishes.  [reorder variable declaration]

## Where it's fixed

| Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | linux Debian 13.5 (trixie) | 6.12.113-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98704](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-98704.md) | Oct 19, 2026 |
| Linux | linux Debian 14 | 7.2.10-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98704](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-98704.md) | Oct 19, 2026 |
| Linux | linux-6.12 Debian 12.15 (bookworm) | 6.12.113-1~deb12u1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98704](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-98704.md) | Oct 19, 2026 |

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Data as of 2026-11-08T13:06:02Z UTC. Source: Patchblox Patch Radar (https://patchblox.com/security/patch-radar). Patchblox finds out-of-date software on Windows, macOS and Linux and updates it through release rings: https://patchblox.com/demo

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