wifi: mac80211: Discard Beacon frames to non-broadcast address

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2025-71127
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerLinux
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-01-14 15:16:02 UTC
Updated2026-07-30 06:24:52 UTC
DescriptionIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: Discard Beacon frames to non-broadcast address Beacon frames are required to be sent to the broadcast address, see IEEE Std 802.11-2020, 11.1.3.1 ("The Address 1 field of the Beacon .. frame shall be set to the broadcast address"). A unicast Beacon frame might be used as a targeted attack to get one of the associated STAs to do something (e.g., using CSA to move it to another channel). As such, it is better have strict filtering for this on the received side and discard all Beacon frames that are sent to an unexpected address. This is even more important for cases where beacon protection is used. The current implementation in mac80211 is correctly discarding unicast Beacon frames if the Protected Frame bit in the Frame Control field is set to 0. However, if that bit is set to 1, the logic used for checking for configured BIGTK(s) does not actually work. If the driver does not have logic for dropping unicast Beacon frames with Protected Frame bit 1, these frames would be accepted in mac80211 processing as valid Beacon frames even though they are not protected. This would allow beacon protection to be bypassed. While the logic for checking beacon protection could be extended to cover this corner case, a more generic check for discard all Beacon frames based on A1=unicast address covers this without needing additional changes. Address all these issues by dropping received Beacon frames if they are sent to a non-broadcast address.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 5.5 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Problem Types: NVD-CWE-noinfo

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Primary5.5MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67Secondary7.1HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED7.1HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

TypeVendorProductVersionUpdateEditionLanguage
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel All All All All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Linux Linux affected af2d14b01c32d7cba65f73503586e5b621afb139 be0974be5c42584e027883ac2af7dab5e950098c git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected af2d14b01c32d7cba65f73503586e5b621afb139 0a59a3895f804469276d188effa511c72e752f35 git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected af2d14b01c32d7cba65f73503586e5b621afb139 88aab153d1528bc559292a12fb5105ee97528e1f git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected af2d14b01c32d7cba65f73503586e5b621afb139 6e5bff40bb38741e40c33043ba0816fba5f93661 git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected af2d14b01c32d7cba65f73503586e5b621afb139 7b240a8935d554ad36a52c2c37c32039f9afaef2 git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected af2d14b01c32d7cba65f73503586e5b621afb139 a21704df4024708be698fb3fd5830d5b113b70e0 git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected af2d14b01c32d7cba65f73503586e5b621afb139 193d18f60588e95d62e0f82b6a53893e5f2f19f8 git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected 5.7 Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 5.7 semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 5.10.248 5.10.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 5.15.198 5.15.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.1.160 6.1.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.6.120 6.6.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.12.65 6.12.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.18.4 6.18.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.19 * original_commit_for_fix Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
git.kernel.org/stable/c/be0974be5c42584e027883ac2af7dab5e950098c 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/0a59a3895f804469276d188effa511c72e752f35 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/193d18f60588e95d62e0f82b6a53893e5f2f19f8 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/6e5bff40bb38741e40c33043ba0816fba5f93661 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/7b240a8935d554ad36a52c2c37c32039f9afaef2 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/a21704df4024708be698fb3fd5830d5b113b70e0 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/88aab153d1528bc559292a12fb5105ee97528e1f 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
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