Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-98936 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-98936 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-98936?
- Informational severity, published 23 October 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Linux kernel affected versions not explicitly stated in advisory.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-98936?
- A patch was published on 2026-08-12: upstream commit merged Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-98936 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access, in an operating system.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-98936?
- Check whether you run Linux kernel at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
The ath11k driver's ath11k_mac_op_start() function resets most accounting variables during hardware restart but omits the ar->num_stations counter, causing it to retain stale values. When the counter reaches 128, the driver rejects new station association requests. This is a logic error in state initialization with no authentication or network precondition; any system experiencing hardware restart (e.g., driver reload, firmware crash recovery) is affected.
Affected products
- Linux kernel affected versions not explicitly stated in advisory
Timeline
- 2026-10-23: disclosed
- 2026-08-12: patched: upstream commit merged