CVE-2026-98985
Low risk· EPSS 6%Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk6th percentile - higher than 6% of all known CVEs
Summary
A use-after-free flaw was fixed in the Linux kernel's path_pivot_root() function used by pivot_root(). It read the parent pointer (mnt_parent) of a mount that could already be unmounted and freed while only a file descriptor kept it alive. The check that both mounts belong to the caller's mount namespace now happens before their parents are read.
Risk Assessment
A local user able to invoke pivot_root() or chroot() can trigger a use-after-free read, potentially causing a kernel crash (denial of service) or, under favorable conditions, privilege escalation.
Recommendation
Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix for CVE-2026-98985 and deploy it on all systems, especially those exposing pivot_root() or chroot() to unprivileged users (e.g., containers).
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-43603Medium
A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux GPU driver could potentially lead to a kernel crash. This may result in a denial of service on the affected system.
- CVE-2026-99270High
A use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's reqsk_timer_handler() function. When TCP socket migration fails at inet_ehash_insert(), the code jumps to the no_ownership label and immediately frees the new reqsk via __reqsk_free() without stopping its timer, potentially leading to a UAF.
- CVE-2026-99269High
In the Linux kernel sched_ext scheduler, a task can be found on a non-local DSQ while the CPU that dispatched it is still running ops.dequeue() and hasn't cleared SCX_OPSS_DISPATCHING. The DSQ consume and move paths don't wait for dispatch to finish and can operate on the task concurrently with the dispatcher. The fix adds scx_wait_dispatching() before operating on the task.
- CVE-2026-99268Unknown
In io_uring with IORING_SETUP_DEFER_TASKRUN, completions are queued as local work and only become CQEs when the submitter enters the kernel to wait for events. io_uring_poll() reports EPOLLIN if local work is pending, but only if the work exists at call time; after DEFER_TASKRUN was added, the ->poll_wq wakeup was replaced by directly waking the submitter, so poll() can sleep despite pending work. The fix wakes ->poll_wq when the first entry is put on the work list, using an RCU callback when needed.
- CVE-2026-99267Unknown
In io_uring NAPI with dynamic tracking, a NAPI id not seen for a minute should be dropped from the ring's busy-poll list. However, the timeout is computed incorrectly — SEC_CONVERSION is used instead of the number of jiffies per second, giving about eight years for HZ=1000 and overflowing on 32-bit systems. As a result, entries are never removed and every wait polls all historical ids.
- CVE-2026-99266Unknown
In io_uring zcrx, io_zcrx_queue_cqe() computes the buffer offset in its area from net_iov_idx(), which is an unsigned int, so the shift is done in 32 bits and only the result is widened to the u64 placed in the CQE. An area can be up to 1 TB, so for every niov beyond the first 4 GB the CQE points the application at a buffer 4 GB (or a multiple) below the correct one. The application reads wrong data and returns a buffer it doesn't own via the refill queue while the real one is never given back.
- CVE-2026-99265Unknown
In io_uring/openclose, io_pipe_fixed() installs both ends of the pipe in the fixed file table, drops ->uring_lock, and copies the slot numbers to the application. If that faults, it takes the lock again and removes whatever is in these slots. If the request is run by io-wq, the lock really is dropped and the slots are visible to others; by the time the error path gets to them, they may have been closed and reused (by IORING_OP_CLOSE, direct open/accept, or IORING_REGISTER_FILES_UPDATE), causing removal of a file unrelated to the failed request. The fix performs the copy with the lock held.
- CVE-2026-99264High
A bug was fixed in the Linux kernel's io_uring/net handling of recv retries on uncommitted buffers. When a receive was retried after a partial transfer, the kernel could hand out buffer memory that the retried request was still writing to, causing data overwrites. The request is now completed with the bytes received instead of retried, and MSG_WAITALL is no longer honoured for incremental buffers or multi-buffer bundles.
- CVE-2026-99263Unknown
In io_uring/poll, if a wakeup sets IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG between the owning task consuming the existing instance of IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG and the loop check in io_poll_check_events(), request processing stalls until an unrelated wakeup arrives. The fix uses atomic_cmpxchg instead of atomic_sub_return to guarantee both the count v and poll_refs are 0 and no wakeups are missed.
- CVE-2026-99262Unknown
In io_uring/timeout, an IORING_OP_TIMEOUT run by io-wq due to IOSQE_ASYNC has the same problem as poll, futex, and waitid. io_wq_submit_work() checks IO_WQ_WORK_CANCEL only once before issuing the request; a cancel in between flags the work, gets -EALREADY, and searches ->timeout_list in vain while the worker adds the request and starts the timer. Nobody checks the flag again and the timeout runs its course, and at ring exit a task can get stuck for the full duration. The fix checks the flag under ->timeout_lock and fails the request if set.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: namespace: check the mounts before reading their parents in pivot_root() path_pivot_root() reads the parents of new_root and of the caller's root and checks whether they are shared before it checks that either mount is in the caller's mount namespace. Only namespace_sem is held. That's fine for a mount that is in the caller's mount namespace. But new_root can be a file descriptor to a mount that has been unmounted and that only the file descriptor keeps alive. If that mount stayed attached to its parent when it was unmounted nothing pins the parent for it. The final mntput() of the parent unhooks the children under mount_lock alone and frees the parent afterwards: pivot_root() close(fd), last ref on the parent ------------ --------------------------------- ex_parent = new_mnt->mnt_parent mntput_no_expire_slowpath() __umount_mnt(new_mnt) cleanup_mnt() call_rcu() IS_MNT_SHARED(ex_parent) BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in path_pivot_root+0xf1a/0x1840 Read of size 4 at addr ffff8881047382f8 by task pivot_widen/157 path_pivot_root+0xf1a/0x1840 __x64_sys_pivot_root+0x165/0x190 The same goes for the caller's root via chroot(). Both outcomes of the check end in EINVAL so nothing but the read itself goes wrong. It's the same thing commit bb4609405752 ("statmount: read the parent of an unmounted mount under mount_lock") fixed for statmount(). Check that both mounts are in the caller's namespace before their parents are read. Every path returns EINVAL either way.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

