# CVE-2026-98824: wifi: mac80211: validate TX status rate metadata

CVE-2026-98824 is fixed in linux on 1 platform by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98824 (version 7.2.10-1), released October 19, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Routine.

- Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-98824
- Priority: Routine
- CVSS: 5.2 (Moderate)
- EPSS: 0.0019
- 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-2026-98824

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:  wifi: mac80211: validate TX status rate metadata  minstrel_ht_tx_status() converts the HT/VHT rate reported in a TX status into a group and rate index and uses those to index the minstrel_ht rate tables.  The existing validation only checked that an entry was present and had tries recorded; it did not check that the reported MCS, spatial stream count and bandwidth are representable by the tables, so malformed metadata passed to minstrel_ht_get_stats() or minstrel_ht_ri_get_stats() could be used as an out-of-bounds index.  Validate the rate metadata in the common TX status path instead of only in minstrel_ht, since the values are used by more than rate control. The legacy ieee80211_tx_rate array and the rate_info based entries are sanitized in ieee80211_tx_status_ext() and ieee80211_tx_rate_update() before any consumer runs: an entry that does not describe a valid rate for its encoding is dropped.  minstrel_ht keeps the checks that depend on its own tables, i.e. the supported number of spatial streams, the MCS group size and the supported bandwidths.  This does not take away the driver's responsibility to report sane values, it only prevents a single bad report from corrupting mac80211 state.  No WARN_ON() is added: with panic_on_warn a driver bug would otherwise turn into a denial of service.

## Where it's fixed

| Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | linux Debian 14 | 7.2.10-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98824](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-98824.md) | Oct 19, 2026 |

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Data as of 2026-11-09T13:31:49Z 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 Patchblox finds out-of-date software on Windows, macOS and Linux and updates it through release rings: https://patchblox.com/demo

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