wifi: mac80211: mesh: release the channel if start fails

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: mesh: release the channel if start fails ieee80211_join_mesh() acquires a channel context and then calls ieee80211_start_mesh(), which can fail. In that case, the chanctx isn't released then interface removal will attempt to unassign it after it's removed from the driver, hitting: wlan0: Failed check-sdata-in-driver check, flags: 0x0 WARNING: net/mac80211/driver-ops.c:366 at drv_unassign_vif_chanctx ieee80211_assign_link_chanctx __ieee80211_link_release_channel ieee80211_link_release_channel ieee80211_teardown_sdata unregister_netdevice_many_notify _cfg80211_unregister_wdev ieee80211_remove_interfaces ieee80211_unregister_hw mac80211_hwsim_del_radio hwsim_exit_net Correctly release the channel on start failures.

Timeline

1. Oct 6, 2026, 8:46 AM UTCCVE published
2. Oct 19, 2026, 9:17 AM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• Linux Linux

  From 2b5e19677592c167d012c2d129407f39d2bdeb8d · fixed in f0afcec2129c166e61821d6ae097061155f01b12; From 2b5e19677592c167d012c2d129407f39d2bdeb8d · fixed in b51f5a310bd6888b90bb9546a8081215dcfe6fbe; From 2b5e19677592c167d012c2d129407f39d2bdeb8d · fixed in 632f7acfe6dac1278a9314eaaab14fada400ddaf; From 2b5e19677592c167d012c2d129407f39d2bdeb8d · fixed in 41bee71112db53651ba9a9030de1b843255a4a7f; From 2b5e19677592c167d012c2d129407f39d2bdeb8d · fixed in 4a4e3fa77ea36d3419d806fb5883ef425a605a5d; From 2b5e19677592c167d012c2d129407f39d2bdeb8d · fixed in ae97fff6495a8764bc0ef281cfe5444f701e527f

• Linux Linux

  3.9

• KernelLinux

  From 3.9.0 · fixed in 6.1.189; From 6.2.0 · fixed in 6.6.158; From 6.7.0 · fixed in 6.12.112; From 6.13.0 · fixed in 6.18.54; From 6.19.0 · fixed in 7.2.8

References 6