In hostapd before 2.12, a missing bounds check in AP-mode Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) Multi-Link Operation (MLO) association request processing allows an unauthenticated attacker within wireless range to send a crafted management frame containing a malformed Multi-Link Element or Per-STA Profile subelement. In hostapd_process_ml_assoc_req() in src/ap/ieee802_11_eht.c, the received link_id field can be parsed as value 15, but the corresponding links[] storage only has valid entries for lower link IDs (0 through 14). This causes an out-of-bounds write / small memory corruption during association processing before the 4-way handshake. The attack does not require network credentials, prior authentication, or user interaction. The confirmed practical impact is denial of service through hostapd process termination. This affects hostapd v2.11 and newer development snapshots before v2.12 when built with CONFIG_IEEE80211BE enabled. The issue is fixed in hostapd v2.12 and the upstream 2026-1 fixes.
hostapd fails to process crafted RADIUS packets properly. When hostapd authenticates wi-fi devices with RADIUS authentication, an attacker in the position between the hostapd and the RADIUS server may inject crafted RADIUS packets and force RADIUS authentications to fail.
In hostapd 2.10 and earlier, the PKEX code remains active even after a successful PKEX association. An attacker that successfully bootstrapped public keys with another entity using PKEX in the past, will be able to subvert a future bootstrapping by passively observing public keys, re-using the encrypting element Qi and subtracting it from the captured message M (X = M - Qi). This will result in the public ephemeral key X; the only element required to subvert the PKEX association.
The implementations of SAE in hostapd before 2.10 and wpa_supplicant before 2.10 are vulnerable to side channel attacks as a result of cache access patterns. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2019-9494.
The implementations of EAP-pwd in hostapd before 2.10 and wpa_supplicant before 2.10 are vulnerable to side-channel attacks as a result of cache access patterns. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2019-9495.
hostapd before 2.10 and wpa_supplicant before 2.10 allow an incorrect indication of disconnection in certain situations because source address validation is mishandled. This is a denial of service that should have been prevented by PMF (aka management frame protection). The attacker must send a crafted 802.11 frame from a location that is within the 802.11 communications range.
The implementations of SAE and EAP-pwd in hostapd and wpa_supplicant 2.x through 2.8 are vulnerable to side-channel attacks as a result of observable timing differences and cache access patterns when Brainpool curves are used. An attacker may be able to gain leaked information from a side-channel attack that can be used for full password recovery.