# CVE-2026-98708: wifi: mac80211: keep paired old chanctx alive

CVE-2026-98708 is fixed in 2 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98708, released October 19, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Routine.

- Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-98708
- Priority: Routine
- CVSS: 5.2 (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-2026-98708

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:  wifi: mac80211: keep paired old chanctx alive  An in-place replacement keeps reciprocal replace_ctx pointers between the old WILL_BE_REPLACED chanctx and the new REPLACES_OTHER chanctx. However, the early free paths only consider assigned and reserved link users when deciding whether to free the old chanctx.  That lets the old chanctx be freed too early while the replacement partner still points back to it, either when the last assigned link is released or when that link successfully reassigns to another existing context. Later unreserve and switch-finalization paths can then follow a stale replace_ctx pointer.  Keep a paired old chanctx alive until the replacement pair has been torn down. Apply the same check to both __ieee80211_link_release_channel() and ieee80211_link_use_reserved_reassign(). If the replacement is later abandoned, ieee80211_link_unreserve_chanctx() already tears down the pairing before freeing the old chanctx once no users remain.

## Where it's fixed

| Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | linux Debian 13.5 (trixie) | 6.12.113-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98708](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-98708.md) | Oct 19, 2026 |
| Linux | linux Debian 14 | 7.2.10-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98708](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-98708.md) | Oct 19, 2026 |
| Linux | linux-6.12 Debian 12.15 (bookworm) | 6.12.113-1~deb12u1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98708](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-98708.md) | Oct 19, 2026 |

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Data as of 2026-11-08T06:59:42Z 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 Patchblox finds out-of-date software on Windows, macOS and Linux and updates it through release rings: https://patchblox.com/demo

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