* [CVE-2026-98424][LOW] wifi: cfg80211: undo netns switch if renaming the wiphy fails [ Upstream
@ 2026-10-15 2:40 21% AL-KERNEL
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From: AL-KERNEL @ 2026-10-15 2:40 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: kernel-cve
CVE: CVE-2026-98424
Priority: LOW
AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW
KPANIC flag: NO
Patch: wifi: cfg80211: undo netns switch if renaming the wiphy fails [ Upstream
Commit: 96bef5667b0c4aecb1b850d2343f69b9d684abb9
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=96bef5667b0c4aecb1b850d2343f69b9d684abb9
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-98424
Analysis date: Wed, 14 Oct 2026 22:40:09 -0400
ActionableScore: 1
ActionableScore lower bound: unknown
Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate
Manual review required: NO
Summary:
No one-sentence report phrase was found.
======================================================================
ABOUT THIS REPORT
======================================================================
The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-98424 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-98424
The original announcement does not normally provide a security severity
estimate, CVSS assessment, or enough information to determine whether the
reported kernel bug represents a practically relevant security issue.
This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. It combines
an autonomous classifier with LLM-assisted technical analysis and a
separate ActionableScore mechanism.
The purpose of this report is to prioritize Linux kernel CVEs before
manual review, identify cases that require prompt investigation, and
support automatic closure of issues that are unlikely to have meaningful
security impact.
Published priority for this report: LOW
Manual review required: NO
A detailed explanation of the methodology and priority rules is included
at the end of this message.
======================================================================
AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT
======================================================================
CVE-2026-98424 LOW https://www.kernelcve.org/list/?q=CVE-2026-98424 CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN MODERATE | AEGIS IMPACT LOW AEGIS_AS=0 LEGACY=LOW RESULT=SAME (legacy and Aegis reconciliation agree; DECISION: both LOW) Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';CWE-755;CWE-703;CWE-670;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L';BEST CVSS score: '4.7';DESCR 'A failure in cfg80211_switch_netns can leave a wireless device in an inconsistent state after its interfaces have been moved to a new network namespace but the wiphy rename required for the sysfs move fails. The failure is limited to allocation error conditions, making reliable triggering difficult and supporting AC:H. For the CVSS the PR:L is selected because the operation normally requires CAP_NET_ADMIN or delegated network namespace management rights, but it does not necessarily require unrestricted host root access. The issue is not directly network reachable and ordinary wireless traffic cannot trigger the affected control path. Impact is primarily reduced availability through inconsistent device placement and failed wireless device management. No memory corruption primitive is identified, so confidentiality and integrity remain C:N and I:N. Automated impact decision path. The original SimpleNet classifier selected MODERATE_KPANIC. The primary LLM estimated paranoid CVSS 4.7 and the production ActionableScore returned 1 with recommendation Ordinary Moderate. The production rules then evaluated CVSS thresholds and ActionableScore thresholds. Recorded rule transitions were CVSS and initial triage stage MODERATE_KPANIC to MODERATE because the CVSS score, vector or bug class threshold rule was applied. ActionableScore thresholds stage MODERATE to LOW because the ActionableScore threshold rule was applied. final reconciliation stage LOW to LOW because KP specialist did not establish a qualifying panic. The legacy KP specialist has no review artifact for this run. The legacy FD or DH downgrade specialist has no review artifact for this run. Exact triggered rule markers were DECREASED_TO_MODERATE_REGULAR_FROM_MODERATE7_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS_AND_CIANNH and DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN3 and KPANIC_UNSUPPORTED_REMOVED. The independent weaker Aegis shadow evaluated CVSS 2.7 and ActionableScore 0 with primitive class CLASS_C and manual review NO. Its independently reconciled impact was LOW. The shadow agreed with the final production impact and aggregation did not change that impact. The final reported impact is LOW.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate (with actual score 1) MAYBE REMOTE DANGER HARDWARE SYZBOT DECREASED_TO_MODERATE_REGULAR_FROM_MODERATE7_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS_AND_CIANNH DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN3 KPANIC_UNSUPPORTED_REMOVED - - checked
======================================================================
ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
======================================================================
ActionableScore=1
PrimitiveClass=CLASS_C
RealUAF=NO
HostAdminRequired=UNKNOWN
NamespaceScopedPrivilege=UNKNOWN
ImportantCandidate=NO
ManualReview=NO
AutoDowngradeAllowed=YES
RequiresHostUID0=UNKNOWN
AuthorizationDecisionBypass=NO
ProtectedResourceImpact=NONE
B4PendingReview=NO
B4PendingConfirmed=NO
1. ActionableScore
* Raw conservative score: 1
* Conservative score: 1
* Raw paranoid score: 1
* Paranoid score: 1
* No floor or cap was applied.
* Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate**::
2. Signal breakdown
* +1 Availability impact. A failed `device_rename()` can leave wireless interfaces, the wiphy, and its sysfs representation associated with inconsistent network namespaces, impairing subsequent device management.
* No UAF, OOB access, refcount mutation, arbitrary write, shared-backing write, or other memory-corruption primitive is established.
* No reliable kernel crash point. The demonstrated symptom is a warning and inconsistent device state, so no strong-DoS point is awarded.
* No authorization point. The patch restores transactional rollback after an allocation failure and does not restore a missing capability or access-control check.
* No cross-namespace boundary-bypass point. Objects being split across namespaces is an invalid state, but unauthorized access to another namespace or protected resource is not demonstrated.
* No privilege penalty. The complete capability checks and their governing user namespace are not visible, so host-admin privilege cannot be positively established.
* No timing penalty. This is not a race. Allocation failure is a prerequisite, but the scoring rules do not support treating that alone as a hard-race penalty.
* B5-R does not apply because there is no heap OOB write or retry-accumulated offset.
* B3-PENDING does not apply because there is no write to shared or file-backed storage.
* B4-PENDING does not apply because no DENY-to-ALLOW authorization transition exists.
3. Reachability analysis
The trigger is a control-plane request that moves a wiphy and its interfaces between network namespaces, followed by an allocation failure in `device_rename()`. The supplied code does not show the initiating nl80211 caller or its capability checks. Therefore, ordinary-user reachability, effective host-admin requirements, and complete namespace-scoped privilege are unresolved.
A suitable wireless device with `WIPHY_FLAG_NETNS_OK`, existing interfaces, and a target network namespace are required. Ordinary packet traffic cannot trigger this path. No race is involved, and the attacker is not shown to control the allocation failure reliably. Physical access or unusual hardware is not established as a security prerequisite, so no hardware penalty is applied.
4. Primitive and severity interpretation
The exact primitive is incomplete rollback after an exceptional allocation failure. Interfaces can already be in the destination namespace when the wiphy sysfs rename fails, leaving related objects split across namespaces.
This is CLASS_C invalid-state behavior. It is not a lifetime violation, active-state retirement bypass, authorization bypass, semantic reinterpretation primitive, or kernel memory corruption. There is no repeated release or refcount operation.
The demonstrated consequence is impaired wireless device management and a warning. A stronger consequence such as host compromise, information disclosure, unauthorized namespace access, or kernel panic is speculative and unsupported. ImportantCandidate is therefore NO, and automatic downgrade is allowed.
5. One-sentence report phrase
An allocation failure during cfg80211 wiphy namespace migration can leave wireless interfaces and their wiphy representation split across network namespaces, causing inconsistent device state and limited availability impact without an established memory-corruption or authorization-bypass primitive.
6. Manual review recommendation
NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED
The patch addresses rollback correctness for a warning-producing allocation-failure path, with no established corruption, protected-resource impact, or security-boundary bypass.
7. Call-site confidence
Call-site confidence: medium
======================================================================
UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY
======================================================================
Patch: wifi: cfg80211: undo netns switch if renaming the wiphy fails [ Upstream
Commit: 96bef5667b0c4aecb1b850d2343f69b9d684abb9
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=96bef5667b0c4aecb1b850d2343f69b9d684abb9
Changed files:
net/wireless/core.c
Diff excerpt:
Not included in this email. See the upstream URL for the full patch.
Full patch:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=96bef5667b0c4aecb1b850d2343f69b9d684abb9
======================================================================
DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY
======================================================================
The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-98424 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-98424
The original CVE announcement normally does not include a security-level
estimate. In particular, it may not contain a CVSS assessment, an impact
level, or enough information to determine whether the reported bug is a
practically relevant security issue. One purpose of this parallel CVE list
is to provide that missing technical and prioritization information.
The original goal of the AL-KERNEL project was to prioritize Linux kernel
CVE analysis automatically before manual review. The system can also help
identify non-security issues that may be suitable for automatic closure.
This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin.
The first analysis stage combines an autonomous classifier with additional
LLM-based analysis. The autonomous classifier runs locally on a CPU and is
based on a backpropagation neural network. Together, these mechanisms
produce a technical vulnerability description, identify likely weakness
types, estimate CVSS severity, and provide input for ActionableScore.
Two CVSS estimates are retained because incomplete kernel vulnerability
information often permits more than one defensible interpretation:
Conservative CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 4.7
The conservative vector represents a lower-impact interpretation.
The Best/paranoid vector intentionally represents a plausible upper-bound
interpretation and should not automatically be treated as demonstrated
real-world impact.
CVSS may also need to be adjusted for a particular Linux deployment,
because actual reachability, privileges, enabled kernel configuration,
hardware, namespaces, exposed device nodes, and other environmental
conditions can differ significantly between systems.
A separate ActionableScore mechanism evaluates practical remediation
urgency. Its analysis may include reachability, attack prerequisites,
subsystem exposure, memory-corruption characteristics, denial-of-service
reliability, and possible confidentiality, integrity, or
privilege-escalation impact.
Conservative ActionableScore: unknown
Paranoid ActionableScore: 1
The final base severity is taken directly from the second tab-separated
field of the AL-KERNEL classification result. ActionableScore does not
replace or independently override that final AL-KERNEL decision, and
if ActionableScore adjusted impact level of ALKERNEL, then you would see
self-readable flags above like INCREASED_TO_HIGH_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCOREHIGHEREQTHAN7.
For an AL-KERNEL result of MODERATE, this report uses the following
additional presentation split:
ActionableScore below 5 -> MODERATE REGULAR
ActionableScore 5 or more -> MODERATE 7.0
The distinction between MODERATE REGULAR and MODERATE 7.0 makes it
possible to identify Moderate issues that should receive manual analysis
and fixes before lower-priority MODERATE REGULAR issues. In many cases,
MODERATE REGULAR fixes may wait for a later rebase or routine update.
There is one override in which MODERATE REGULAR becomes MODERATE 7.0
even when the ActionableScore is below 5. When the AL-KERNEL result
contains the KPANIC flag, a MODERATE result is always presented as
MODERATE 7.0. The KPANIC flag selected with few regexps without
usage of AI at all, so it helps to detect cases when Kernel Crash happens
and similar (to filter False-Negative results from the LLM usage).
KPANIC indicates that a reliable kernel crash, kernel panic, or similarly
serious kernel availability impact was identified by the classification
workflow.
AL-KERNEL base severity for this report: LOW
KPANIC detected for this report: NO
Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): LOW
These results are intended to support engineering triage. They are
machine-generated estimates, and cases marked for manual review should
be validated by a human security engineer before final disposition.
For more info read docs linked from here: https://kernelcve.org/
(and you can submit you own patch there to generate such a report
for non-existant CVE-id yet).
Note that in many cases this AI tool selects higher severity, than
real is (means you can expect Importants instead of Moderate 7.0 or
Moderates 7.0 instead of regular Moderates). If you see such cases,
please use reply email interface to add additional manual analyses
info to this particular CVE.
And please, please, let me know when you see Lows instead of Importants
or Important instead of Low (because particular for such cases I
need to tune this AI tool to make it better for this one and next similar).
My contact email for such notifications is [email protected] (and both
send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).
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