HighCVE-2026-98968

    Linux Kernel: Use-After-Free (CVE-2026-98968)

    Published Last modified Sources: Msrc Update Guide, CVE.org, BSI

    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: amt: send the relay's General Query directly from the receive path An skb queued in a qdisc can outlive the tunnel it references through a raw pointer in skb->cb. For example, with igmp_qrv set to 1 on the relay a tunnel lives for 135s, so a netem delay of 180s on the amt device outlives it; when the tunnel expires and is freed, the subsequent dequeue triggers a use-after-free in amt_dev_xmit().

    Update Linux Kernel to version 6.6.160, Linux Kernel to version 6.12.113, Linux Kernel to version 6.18.57.

    Affected
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.16..6.6.160
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.7..6.12.113
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.13..6.18.57
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.19..7.2.11
    Fixed in
    • Linux Kernel 6.6.160
    • Linux Kernel 6.12.113
    • Linux Kernel 6.18.57
    • Linux Kernel 7.2.11
    • Linux Kernel 7.3

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    7.7

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3

    7.7

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: Msrc Update Guide, CVE.org, BSI

    0.5 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 42.4

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    High
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    82.89 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    no public PoC known
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    7.7 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.7
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    0.5 %
    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    42.4
    High — this CVE ranks above the median of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 36%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    —
    Published

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: amt: send the relay's General Query directly from the receive path An skb queued in a qdisc can outlive the tunnel it references through a raw pointer in skb->cb. For example, with igmp_qrv set to 1 on the relay a tunnel lives for 135s, so a netem delay of 180s on the amt device outlives it; when the tunnel expires and is freed, the subsequent dequeue triggers a use-after-free in amt_dev_xmit(). BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in amt_dev_xmit+0x2763/0x2e20 Call Trace: amt_dev_xmit+0x2763/0x2e20 [drivers/net/amt.c:1262] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x22f/0x620 sch_direct_xmit+0x12e/0xac0 netem_dequeue+0x333/0xc50 net_tx_action+0x35c/0xa60 amt_send_igmp_gq() and amt_send_mld_gq() are only called from amt_request_handler(), inside the rcu_read_lock_bh() section of amt_rcv(). amt_request_handler() already has the tunnel the query is for: it found or created it inside that section. Queuing the query with dev_queue_xmit() only leads back into amt_dev_xmit(), which strips the Ethernet header and calls amt_send_membership_query() for that tunnel. Make that call directly from the two senders instead, the same way amt_send_advertisement() transmits from the receive path. The query never waits in a qdisc, the tunnel is only dereferenced inside the RCU section that found or created it, and nothing is stored in skb->cb, so no lookup or refcount is needed. Remove the query branch of amt_dev_xmit(), amt_skb_cb() and struct amt_skb_cb, which have no users left. Behaviour changes: - The relay's own General Queries no longer pass through the amt device's egress path: its qdisc, tc egress (clsact/tcx), the netfilter egress hook and packet taps. They are still visible as UDP on the underlay. - A query that is sent successfully is no longer counted as tx_dropped. The old query branch left through the unlock label, which counted every sent query as dropped. - A query that reaches amt_dev_xmit() on a relay from elsewhere, such as a userspace querier, is now dropped at the IGMP/MLD type switch. Before, it trusted whatever skb->cb held, and a NULL tunnel hit the WARN_ON(1).

    Source: Microsoft Security Update Guide, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), BSI CSAF, BSI WID Portal

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    LinuxLinux
    • 6.19 – < 7.2.11
    • 6.7 – < 6.12.113
    • —
    • 6.13 – < 6.18.57
    • 5.16 – < 6.6.160
    • 7.2.11
    • 6.12.113
    • 7.3
    • 6.18.57
    • 6.6.160

    Vendors and products

    References & sources

    Changes to this CVE

    Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

    1. Record modifiedLinux

      CVSS V3.1: AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      CVSSadded
      —
      AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    2. ReceivedLinux

      Description added or changed

      Show 7 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Descriptionadded
      —
      In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: amt: send the relay's General Query directly from the receive path An skb queued in a qdisc can outlive the tunnel it references through a raw pointer in skb->cb. For example, with igmp_qrv set to 1 on the relay a tunnel lives for 135s, so a netem delay of 180s on the amt device outlives it; when the tunnel expires and is freed, the subsequent dequeue triggers a use-after-free in amt_dev_xmit(). BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in amt_dev_xmit+0x2763/0x2e20 Call Trace: amt_dev_xmit+0x2763/0x2e20 [drivers/net/amt.c:1262] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x22f/0x620 sch_direct_xmit+0x12e/0xac0 netem_dequeue+0x333/0xc50 net_tx_action+0x35c/0xa60 amt_send_igmp_gq() and amt_send_mld_gq() are only called from amt_request_handler(), inside the rcu_read_lock_bh() section of amt_rcv(). amt_request_handler() already has the tunnel the query is for: it found or created it inside that section. Queuing the query with dev_queue_xmit() only leads back into amt_dev_xmit(), which strips the Ethernet header and calls amt_send_membership_query() for that tunnel. Make that call directly from the two senders instead, the same way amt_send_advertisement() transmits from the receive path. The query never waits in a qdisc, the tunnel is only dereferenced inside the RCU section that found or created it, and nothing is stored in skb->cb, so no lookup or refcount is needed. Remove the query branch of amt_dev_xmit(), amt_skb_cb() and struct amt_skb_cb, which have no users left. Behaviour changes: - The relay's own General Queries no longer pass through the amt device's egress path: its qdisc, tc egress (clsact/tcx), the netfilter egress hook and packet taps. They are still visible as UDP on the underlay. - A query that is sent successfully is no longer counted as tx_dropped. The old query branch left through the unlock label, which counted every sent query as dropped. - A query that reaches amt_dev_xmit() on a relay from elsewhere, such as a userspace querier, is now dropped at the IGMP/MLD type switch. Before, it trusted whatever skb->cb held, and a NULL tunnel hit the WARN_ON(1).
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/98xxx/CVE-2026-98968.json">CVE-2026-98968</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/181cb48c1e9af6b402567e132f879f89d1c54131
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/95114e421196250e3d9662f12df442799477d3c3
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/afae89de73dd693cfa329580ba0fba63bd3f0a11
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7183b7d518ce8b3e1f7284f9881d7a87569df14
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7ea63b4195a150604993044ab574d8240f2a399

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

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