Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98180

Vulnerability identifier: #VU153838

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 4.8 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98180

CWE-ID: CWE-416

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local user to read freed kernel memory.

The vulnerability exists due to use-after-free in the DRM MSM driver's embedded GPU schedulers when retrieving a fence timeline name after the containing ringbuffer or virtual memory object has been freed. A local user can query a finished, exported fence through SYNC_IOC_FILE_INFO to read freed kernel memory.

The affected fences include submit out-fences and VM_BIND fences exported to userspace through sync_file or drm_syncobj.

Linux kernel
Ubuntu
linux (Ubuntu package)
linux-aws (Ubuntu package)
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package)
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package)
linux-ibm (Ubuntu package)
linux-hwe-7.0 (Ubuntu package)
linux-oem-7.0 (Ubuntu package)

Install security update from vendor's repository.

Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
linux (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-42.42
linux-aws (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.17
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.18
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1015.16
linux-ibm (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1017.17
linux-hwe-7.0 (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1
linux-oem-7.0 (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1017.17

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/01c8d1f385f788f1bbbbb7687c4386d614281218
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/713abac5c04ccbae67f9ac68c3921845535388e7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d81bf4581903b0cba0698cd4d1c07fc6be21754a

• Use-after-free in Linux kernel drm msm driver
• Ubuntu update for linux-oem-7.0
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp and more