CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98229

HighCVSS 7.8
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.16%

5th percentile - higher than 5% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, xfrm_input() has a use-after-free vulnerability involving xfrm_state. Some receive paths, such as VTI and XFRM interfaces, can reset the secpath before processing completes, leading to dereferencing freed memory. The fix saves the state protocol on the stack before the reset and uses the already saved address family.

Risk Assessment

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a system crash or potentially escalate privileges in the kernel, posing a serious threat to system integrity and availability.

Recommendation

Immediately update the Linux kernel to a patched version and monitor distribution security advisories.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: save input state data before secpath resets xfrm_input() stores the current xfrm_state in the skb secpath while it continues receive-side processing. Some input paths can reset that secpath before xfrm_input() has finished dereferencing the state. Receive callback users such as VTI and XFRM interfaces can reset the secpath. The VTI receive path does so before checking whether the packet crosses network namespaces, while the XFRM interface path does so only for cross-network-namespace packets. The XFRM_MAX_DEPTH error path can also reset the secpath before the final drop callback reports the current state's protocol. If secpath_reset() drops the last state reference while the state is concurrently deleted, xfrm_input() can still dereference the freed state when selecting transport_finish() or reporting the drop callback protocol. Save the state protocol on the stack while the state is still valid, and use the already saved address family for transport_finish(). A larval XFRM_STATE_ACQ state has no type, so retain nexthdr as its protocol. This preserves the existing drop-path fallback while avoiding the post-reset state dereferences without adding an extra state reference to every received packet.

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