CVE-2026-98490
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk9th 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 Avoid outdated kernel versions in environments using openvswitch conntrack.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
See all- CVE-2026-99087Unknown
In the Linux kernel, dm-integrity has a NULL pointer dereference when a device with the SB_FLAG_DIRTY_BITMAP flag is activated in 'R' mode. The dm_integrity_resume function attempts to read the journal containing the bitmap, causing a crash. The fix skips writes to the device in 'R' mode during resume.
- CVE-2026-99086Unknown
In the Linux kernel, dm-integrity does not validate the superblock on resume, allowing a user to modify the superblock on the underlying device while the dm-integrity device is suspended. This can cause a mismatch in in-memory structure sizes and an out-of-bounds write past the journal, including a 512-byte write through a NULL pointer. The fix snapshots the validated superblock in the constructor and refuses to resume if the on-disk geometry changed.
- CVE-2026-99085Unknown
A Linux kernel vulnerability was fixed in the sched_ext scheduler that caused a CPU hotplug hang when a dying CPU's tasks remained in the BPF scheduler. Such tasks were still counted on the runqueue, but an inactive CPU no longer called ops.dispatch() and could not pull them back, blocking the hotplug thread and cpu_down() while holding cpu_hotplug_lock. The fix re-enqueues tasks on the offline rq to the local DSQ so balance_push() can move them off.
- CVE-2026-99084Unknown
In the Linux kernel, a flaw was fixed in iterate_dir() where the directory's i_rwsem lock was held during readdir even for immutable directories that are never removed. For the nullfs instance directory (shared across mount namespaces and kernel threads), a malicious reader could hold the lock indefinitely, blocking mkdir, lookups, and mounts for other users. A new FOP_IMMUTABLE flag was added to skip the lock for such directories.
- CVE-2026-99080Unknown
In the Linux kernel, clear_inode() has an xarray node leak that can be triggered, among other ways, via madvise. Rather than fixing the leaks where they occur, the fix calls xa_destroy(), which has the side effect of cycling the i_pages lock.
- CVE-2026-99076Unknown
A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's IPv6/UDP handling allowed off-path attackers to conduct a side-channel attack on the exception cache to discover the ephemeral port used by a connected UDP socket. Previously, an exception was only created if the UDP packet could be matched to an existing socket. The fix always creates an exception before attempting socket matching.
- CVE-2026-99075Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the rust_binder module has a bug in node refcount update on thread exit. When a thread exits via BINDER_THREAD_EXIT, a pending node refcount increment could be dropped because Node::cancel() and NodeWrapper::cancel() were no-ops. This desynchronizes the node's delivery and count state, and userspace may not receive the notification, potentially causing the node to never be freed.
- CVE-2026-99074Unknown
In the Linux kernel IPv4 subsystem, a null-ptr-deref occurs during PMTU update when a nexthop group shrinks. __ip_rt_update_pmtu() iterates over paths, and a concurrent nexthop replacement can cause fib_info_nhc() to return NULL, which is then dereferenced in update_or_create_fnhe(). This requires CAP_NET_ADMIN in the network namespace, but where unprivileged user namespaces are permitted, a local user can obtain it.
- CVE-2026-99073Unknown
In the Linux kernel IPv4 subsystem, a null-ptr-deref occurs during FIB exception dump when a nexthop group shrinks. fib_dump_info_fnhe() uses fib_info_num_path() as the loop bound, then fib_info_nhc() independently reloads nh->nh_grp; if RTM_NEWNEXTHOP replaces the group with fewer paths, fib_info_nhc() returns NULL and the dump dereferences it. The fix stops the walk when the indexed path is absent.
- CVE-2026-99072Unknown
In the Linux kernel IPv4 subsystem, a null-ptr-deref occurs during route notification sizing when a nexthop group shrinks. fib_nlmsg_size() checks fib_info_num_path() before each iteration, then fib_info_nhc() independently reloads nh->nh_grp; if RTM_NEWNEXTHOP replaces the group with fewer paths, fib_info_nhc() returns NULL and fib_nexthop_nlmsg_size() dereferences it. The fix stops sizing when the indexed path is absent.
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

