CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98831

Low risk· EPSS 6%
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.17%

6th percentile - higher than 6% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, in of/overlay, init_overlay_changeset() stores the number of initialized fragments in ovcs->count only on full success. When find_target() or the __symbols__ lookup fails partway through, fragment references are never dropped, leading to a memory leak.

Risk Assessment

A reference leak can lead to gradual kernel memory exhaustion and system instability with repeated overlay applications. Requires use of Device Tree overlays.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix that stores the running count on the error path.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: of/overlay: don't leak fragment references when changeset init fails init_overlay_changeset() stores the number of initialized fragments in ovcs->count only on full success. When find_target() or the __symbols__ lookup fails partway through, the target and overlay references taken for the fragments initialized so far are never dropped: free_overlay_changeset() bounds its cleanup loop by ovcs->count, which is still 0. Store the running count on the error path so free_overlay_changeset() puts whatever was set up. The store is guarded by ovcs->fragments because on the allocation-failure path cnt still holds the counting pass total while there is no fragments array; everywhere else cnt only counts fully-initialized fragments.

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