Wi-Fi outage via stale reset link state
Published Sep 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 17, 2026
Linux 6.18 mt7996 Wi-Fi state-reset errors allow attackers to interrupt wireless connectivity after a full chip reset. The reset path frees link structures but retains valid_links bits, causing mt7996_vif_link_add() to skip firmware setup; retained MLD allocation masks also exhaust indices across repeated resets. Affected mt7996 hardware and a full chip reset are required, but public sources do not explain how attackers force that reset.
Summary
What happened
Linux 6.18 mt7996 Wi-Fi state-reset errors allow attackers to interrupt wireless connectivity after a full chip reset. The reset path frees link structures but retains valid_links bits, causing mt7996_vif_link_add() to skip firmware setup; retained MLD allocation masks also exhaust indices across repeated resets. Affected mt7996 hardware and a full chip reset are required, but public sources do not explain how attackers force that reset.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-90355
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 17, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 17, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 17, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=6.18
- Affected versionversion=ace5d3b6b49e8391beb4d7244348ba7da5298878 <75d2a4e2129b58bb0ddb842387299038495aad2a
- Affected versionversion=ace5d3b6b49e8391beb4d7244348ba7da5298878 <fc3762724a36867c1749233c43368c2637ecf029
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
No sourced classifications are available.
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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