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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2025-71127

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.10.248 / 5.15.198 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In 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.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 5.7.1, < 5.10.248>= 5.11, < 5.15.198>= 5.16, < 6.1.160>= 6.2, < 6.6.120>= 6.7, < 6.12.65>= 6.13, < 6.18.4= 5.7= 6.19

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.10.248 / 5.15.198 / 6.1.160 or later
Fixed in 5.10.2485.15.1986.1.160
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to kernel 5.10.248+, 5.15.198+, 6.1.160+, or 6.6.120+ depending on your current branch

  1. Identify the currently running kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. Determine which kernel branch is in use (e.g., 5.10.x, 5.15.x, 6.1.x, 6.2.x, 6.6.x)
  3. Upgrade the Linux kernel to a fixed version: For 5.10.x branch: upgrade to >= 5.10.248; For 5.15.x branch: upgrade to >= 5.15.198; For 6.1.x branch: upgrade to >= 6.1.160; For 6.2.x - 6.5.x branch: upgrade to >= 6.6.120; For 6.6.x and later: the fix is already included
  4. After kernel upgrade, reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
  5. Verify the fix is active by checking that Beacon frames to non-broadcast addresses are now dropped in the wireless stack
Caveat Kernel upgrades may introduce changes to wireless drivers or configuration; ensure wireless adapter drivers are compatible with the new kernel version

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-71127 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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