CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98490

CriticalCVSS 9.8
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.20%

9th percentile - higher than 9% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the openvswitch conntrack module has a use-after-free due to extension reallocation. A raw pointer to the extensions area is wired into the expectations list, and later extension additions can invalidate it, causing a UAF when the expectation is removed.

Risk Assessment

Kernel memory corruption and system crash or kernel-level privilege escalation may occur if an attacker can trigger the relevant conntrack paths.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version with the fix that calls helpers at the end after all extensions are added. Avoid outdated kernel versions in environments using openvswitch conntrack.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: conntrack: fix helper UAF due to extensions realloc While calling the helpers, a raw pointer to the extensions area is wired into expectations list: -> nf_ct_helper() -> helper->help() -> nf_ct_expect_related_report() -> nf_ct_expect_insert() -> hlist_add_head_rcu(&exp->lnode, &master_help->expectations) In case the connection is not confirmed yet, more extensions can be added afterwards with *_ext_add() calls reallocating the extension space and leaving the now invalid pointer in the expectations list that is later accessed while removing the expectation. Make sure that helpers are called at the end after all the other extensions are already added. Note that the helper rejection now leaves the mark and labels set, but that's not different from how the NAT was handled before or how the mark and the labels were handled on confirmation failure. And there are no atomicity guarantees provided by the API anyway.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS