CVE-2026-98385
UnknownSummary
A use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel's scheduler cache grouping mechanism. Scheduler statistics were stored in the mm structure, allowing access after the old mm was freed during context switching. The issue was fixed by extracting these statistics into a separate refcounted object.
Risk Assessment
The vulnerability may lead to kernel memory corruption, potentially resulting in privilege escalation or system crash. An attacker could exploit the race between mm switching and scheduler statistics updates.
Recommendation
Immediately update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix (commit resolving the UAF). Monitor distribution channels for backports and apply them in production environments.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-87765Medium
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- CVE-2026-98373Unknown
In the Linux kernel, a bug exists in move_hugetlb_page_tables() where the destination address is advanced too far when the source and destination offsets within their page tables differ. This can lead to a kernel panic on x86-64.
- CVE-2026-98048Unknown
In the Linux kernel's BPF subsystem, mark_fastcall_pattern_for_call() must ensure that a matched "spill; call; fill" instruction series is not interrupted by a jump. Otherwise the rewrite applied by bpf_remove_fastcall_spills_fills() is unsound. The fix records instructions targeted by jumps in insn_aux_data[*].jump_target and uses this flag to stop growing a pattern.
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- CVE-2026-98044Unknown
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- CVE-2026-98043Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier incorrectly inferred that a pointer with an unbounded offset is non-NULL based solely on its type. As a result, a BPF program could pass verification while a NULL pointer dereference occurred at runtime.
- CVE-2026-98042Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier could resurrect a scalar id dropped by collect_linked_regs() because snapshots of compared registers were taken before linked registers were collected. This could lead to range inconsistencies and precision propagation issues.
- CVE-2026-98041High
In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier incorrectly predicted the outcome of pointer vs zero comparisons in JMP32 instructions, failing to distinguish BPF_JMP from BPF_JMP32 comparisons. This led to incorrect inference that a jump is always taken.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched/cache: Decouple sched_cache_group from mm to fix UAF Currently the sched cache grouping is by mm and the scheduling statistics sched_cache_stat lives in the mm structure. This ties the life cycle of scheduling stats with mm. In account_mm_sched(), the scheduling stats are accessed by task->mm->sc_stat. However, a task may be switching mm on one CPU when another CPU is running account_mm_sched(), and possibly accessing the old mm that was freed. This problem was found when running tests with KASAN by Hyunwoo: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/apPb-Dr4nPYuHQOK@v4bel/ Instead of serializing the mm access by introducing extra acquisition of rq lock in the mm free path, extract sched_cache_stat from mm_struct, rename it as sched_cache_group and manage its life cycle apart from mm_struct with its own ref counting. This allows us in the next patch access sched_cache_group directly from task, and add a refcount on sched_cache_group when a task links to it. This prevents the use after free issue when accessing stale and released old mm and its sched cache stat a task switches to a new mm while account_mm_sched() is done elsewhere. The other benefit of this restructure is in the future, the grouping of tasks to a LLC would have the flexibility to be associated with a user defined grouping, or cgroup, cookie group, numa_group or others instead of just with a single mm address space. Rename sched_cache_stat to sched_cache_group and turn it into a refcounted object allocated from mm_struct. The mm_struct now holds a pointer (sched_cache_grp) to this object instead of embedding it.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS