Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98217
Published: October 7, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU153802
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 0 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98217
CWE-ID: CWE-416
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local user to trigger a use-after-free during device cleanup.
The vulnerability exists due to use-after-free in the mlx4 InfiniBand driver's pkey sysfs cleanup when cleaning up a device after a per-slave pkey sysfs registration failure. A local user can trigger cleanup of a failed slave tree with stale parent kobject pointers to trigger a use-after-free.
Registration continues for the remaining slaves despite per-slave registration errors.
Affected software
Linux kernel
Debian Linux
linux (Debian package)
Debian Linux
linux (Debian package)
How to mitigate CVE-2026-98217
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/0c3482e965b18bc242e54e899d1c4d391ca8e5e3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1af874e9f4ce22ccf8b10ab5462f32c70d3be21a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/734f066933484f6c7cedea0312763249beed5845
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/791471421d848ce13e84f4b21c9e19973d471c4e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a07bee32127d7c4cd3b1bb9a088e21d0c93634c9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ced1186fea7c77e16681c7ef4802897885989c3b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cf20d7476754c00eec04ae23d3e929de33ce0345
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ffb80872617b5f9b3dd1536ec2909029fa66f228