CVE-2026-46125: wifi: mac80211: remove station if connection prep fails

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-05-28 · updated 2026-10-19
Weakness: CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: remove station if connection prep fails If connection preparation fails for MLO connections, then the interface is completely reset to non-MLD. In this case, we must not keep the station since it's related to the link of the vif being removed. Delete an existing station. Any "new_sta" is already being removed, so that doesn't need changes. This fixes a use-after-free/double-free in debugfs if that's enabled, because a vif going from MLD (and to MLD, but that's not relevant here) recreates its entire debugfs.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.0 before 6.1.176; from 6.2 before 6.6.140; from 6.7 before 6.12.88; from 6.13 before 6.18.30; from 6.19 before 7.0.7; 7.1-rc1, 7.1-rc2 — fixed in 6.1.176, 6.12.88, 6.18.30, 6.6.140, 7.0.7

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.1.176, 6.12.88, 6.18.30, 6.6.140. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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