Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98264
Published: October 7, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU153759
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 0 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98264
CWE-ID: CWE-416
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a device to access freed memory.
The vulnerability exists due to use-after-free in the ALSA virtio sound driver's virtsnd_remove() and virtsnd_freeze() functions when deleting virtqueues before resetting the device. A local user can trigger device removal or freezing to cause a device to access freed memory.
Modern virtio-pci keeps enabled queues active until the device is reset. The affected removal path is also used during probe failures after DRIVER_OK.
Affected software
Linux kernel
Debian Linux
linux (Debian package)
Debian Linux
linux (Debian package)
How to mitigate CVE-2026-98264
Install security update from vendor's repository.
Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
linux (Debian package) - update to 6.12.113-1
linux (Debian package) - update to 6.12.113-1
External References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3e24b4a6acfd3bedb2200334595facd767c9a897
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/500a8401415ab085555785c3c339747e378abd36
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6c05d00af307560e6a9f1631d6270d3df5aa2272
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/830012feadc228a938514a6487862dcf56af7e66
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8edc3669e3e22f0123a1114c3a03df9abc4cd465
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f070cce7cb361d5389b18f3ff6bd3d25a7596369