Out-of-bounds access in Linux kernel minstrel_ht rate control
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Fixed
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
The Linux kernel mac80211 minstrel_ht rate control code, from 3.1, accepts any 32-bit value written to the fixed_rate_idx debugfs file. Out-of-range group and rate indexes make the code read and write memory beyond its arrays, which corrupts adjacent kernel memory. Writing to this file requires access to a root-only debugfs mount, which the kernel does not treat as a privilege boundary.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-06
Description from the CNA
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: minstrel_ht: validate fixed rate index The fixed_rate_idx debugfs file is a plain u32 attribute, so any value can be written to it. minstrel_ht_update_stats() then copies the value into mi->max_tp_rate[] and mi->max_prob_rate, and minstrel_ht_set_rate() uses MI_RATE_GROUP()/MI_RATE_IDX() to index minstrel_mcs_groups[] (42 entries) and mi->groups[].rates[] (10 entries) with it. Writing e.g. 65535 selects group 4095 and rate index 15, far outside both arrays. The out-of-bounds entries are dereferenced and updated as struct minstrel_rate_stats (retry counts, etc.), so the invalid index corrupts adjacent kernel memory. With CONFIG_UBSAN_BOUNDS the access is reported as an array-index-out-of-bounds in minstrel_ht_set_rate(). Only a valid group/rate pair, or U32_MAX to disable fixed rate processing, can be used safely, so reject any other value when the debugfs file is written. The file is only reachable through a root-only debugfs mount, so this is not a privilege boundary. The out-of-bounds access is still a bug that must not be reachable through a writable debugfs attribute.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
Update the Linux kernel to a fixed version: 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.113, 6.18.56, 7.2.10 or 7.3.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-06
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.113, 6.18.56, 7.2.10, 7.3
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 7 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5
Timeline
- 2026-10-18 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-98703
- 2026-10-18 Alias added: GHSA-h4f8-3q7w-49pw
- 2026-10-19 Fix available: Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-10-21 Fix available: Linux/[email protected], Linux/Linux@eebc70f132041b35da9ec74d5d395083125289b2 · CNA
- 2026-10-21 1 new reference · CNA
- 2026-10-23 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-23 CVSS score added · Red Hat
- 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/[email protected], Linux/[email protected], Linux/Linux@63097bf1b7f17f14bd9ffcae6590c63272da8bb0 +1 · CNA
- 2026-10-30 2 new references · CNA
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/63097bf1b7f17f14bd9ffcae6590c63272da8bb0
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9b685cfb5cc8ed57991b1a956b06c6658d7cf455
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/eebc70f132041b35da9ec74d5d395083125289b2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f8ab6ae1fa360b0191252677f41e781dcb0ffe6e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/42aa9feb27b600809414a3c6b0c650bafba542a9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/43082d604a9937b94ceb2e484403956d0f363324
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15fb9e3cea55fbc378261ce35a32b0f8828f0000
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Sources
- CVE-2026-98703 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-98703 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-h4f8-3q7w-49pw · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-98703 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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