Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98452

Vulnerability identifier: #VU156750

CSH Severity: Medium

CVSS v4: 6.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98452

CWE-ID: CWE-772

Exploitation vector: Remote access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause SMB directory handle leaks that may lead to a denial of service through resource exhaustion.

The vulnerability exists due to improper cleanup of opened directory handles and insufficient response validation in the Linux kernel SMB client's open_cached_dir() function when processing compound CREATE and QUERY_INFO responses. A remote attacker can supply server responses in which CREATE succeeds but a subsequent command fails to leave the successfully opened directory handle unclosed, potentially exhausting resources.

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/48958ddda3d7eee3600261e2d90671f63e055dc4
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7c1509598a4fdfb54cb09ce33e4405bd6dbd8295
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/abab661eed00fa102d3c35ddf1cce4f687e718c1
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d2ff5fb93ea83034025850266b5eed391f96b825

• Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime in Linux kernel smb client
• Ubuntu update for linux-oem-7.0
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp and more