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CVE-2026-72024
mac802154: remove interfaces with RCU list deletion
Published 2026-08-15 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem net/mac802154. Debian urgency: not yet assigned.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-72024 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | fixed | 6.1.180-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.1.180-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian 13trixie | fixed | 6.12.100-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.12.100-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.1.5-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.5-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.1.5-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.5-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
Queue wake, stop, and disable paths walk local->interfaces under RCU. The bulk hardware teardown path removes entries with list_del(), so an asynchronous transmit completion can follow a poisoned list node in ieee802154_wake_queue(). Use list_del_rcu() as in the single-interface removal path. The following unregister_netdevice() waits for in-flight RCU readers before freeing the netdevice, so no separate grace-period wait is needed.
Where it lives
The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.
net/mac802154/iface.c
- What this is
- IEEE 802.15.4 SUBSYSTEMMAINTAINERS section matched on net/mac802154/ · linux-wpan@vger.kernel.org · Maintained
- Kernel module
- mac802154
Check it on the machine
grep -w CONFIG_MAC802154 /boot/config-$(uname -r)Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.
lsmod | grep -w mac802154Prints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.
Show whether Debian builds this, per release
Debian builds this, but not on every flavour. At least one release below builds the code on some of its kernel flavours and not on others, so the answer depends on the architecture and flavour installed.
- bookworm, trixie, forky, sidMnot built on amd64/cloud-amd64, arm64/cloud-arm64
- M
- a module where it is built at all; some flavours do not build it
- Build switch
- CONFIG_MAC802154
From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages
Signals
- Published
- 2026-08-15 (2 months ago)source
- CVSS
- 7.8 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it - Attack vector
- local (AV:L)source
- EPSS
- 0.16%, higher than 5.3% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- not yet assignedsource
- Subsystem
- net/mac802154
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 3.19 | 5.10.261 | 72ac5af9ad09 |
| 3.19 | 5.15.212 | 2039f27b1a0c |
| 3.19 | 6.1.178 | 4bf231f459b5 |
| 3.19 | 6.6.145 | b91e5248dd7a |
| 3.19 | 6.12.97 | c7c031b75218 |
| 3.19 | 6.18.40 | 77caf2d6eba7 |
| 3.19 | 7.1.5 | d8b5b66388a5 |
| 3.19 | 7.2 | 539dfcf69105 |
Why the CNA scored it this way
Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source
- AV:LAttack vector, local
- Exploitation requires local syscalls to transmit on an IEEE 802.15.4 interface and concurrently tear down the mac802154 hardware (e.g., mac802154_hwsim DEL_RADIO or driver unregister); remote 802.15.4 frames do not reach ieee802154_remove_interfaces().
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- The attacker controls both sides of the race by concurrently sending traffic (sendmmsg on AF_IEEE802154) while deleting the radio/hardware; syzbot reliably reproduced the crash without external timing dependencies.
- PR:LPrivileges required, low
- With mac802154_hwsim loaded, CAP_NET_ADMIN in a user namespace suffices to bring up wpan interfaces, transmit packets, and issue MAC802154_HWSIM_CMD_DEL_RADIO (GENL_UNS_ADMIN_PERM); AF_IEEE802154 sockets also require only namespace CAP_NET_ADMIN/CAP_NET_RAW.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- No victim interaction is required; the attacker triggers the race entirely through their own netlink and socket operations without needing another user to perform any action.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- Impact is confined to kernel memory corruption and privilege boundaries within the same kernel; this is not a VM escape, IOMMU bypass, or cross-security-authority boundary violation.
- C:HConfidentiality impact, high
- The RCU list walk in ieee802154_wake_queue() dereferences poisoned/freed list nodes (KASAN wild-memory-access at dead000000000218), constituting use-after-free class memory corruption that can expose adjacent kernel heap contents.
- I:HIntegrity impact, high
- Corrupted list traversal can pass attacker-influenced sdata/netdev pointers into netif_wake_queue(), enabling heap corruption primitives and potential control-flow hijacking beyond a simple crash.
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- The syzbot reproducer causes a general protection fault kernel oops in ieee802154_release_queue(); the use-after-free class bug can panic or hang the system even when not fully exploited for code execution.