Memory leak in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98514

Vulnerability identifier: #VU156815

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 6.8 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98514

CWE-ID: CWE-401

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local user to exhaust kernel resources, potentially causing a denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to an unreleased GEM object reference in the Linux kernel nouveau driver's validate_init() function when ttm_bo_reserve() fails or a virtual memory area lookup returns no matching entry. A local user can trigger these error paths repeatedly to accumulate unreleased objects and potentially exhaust kernel resources, causing a denial of service.

Linux kernel
Ubuntu
linux-nvidia-tegra (Ubuntu package)
linux-nvidia-tegra-igx (Ubuntu package)
linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 (Ubuntu package)
linux (Ubuntu package)
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package)
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package)
linux-aws (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-nvidia-tegra (Ubuntu package) - update to 5.15.0-1070.72
linux-nvidia-tegra-igx (Ubuntu package) - update to 5.15.0-1059.59
linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 (Ubuntu package) - update to 5.15.0-1070.72~20.04.1
linux (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-42.42
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.18
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1015.16
linux-aws (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.17
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/030e93fc91d55d9487b3b85fc0712bb795d77834
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3c80e069470cf73c357c9edb5ec5fba20e6f6a98
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5ea72f7b7139b123713a7983448f910bc4514d9e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/74485cdc343060fce08f8f3990da524d783e43a7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8281930fc194ad448aaa5de8dd47fb6fb1cba327
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/957619120c26d6727efd18504e6b488673d3900a
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9e13c398a23445baf38f0a59033dd9872a2bfe20
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/af2f48c12365866abb327d75c21a13bbde84719c

• Memory leak in Linux kernel drm nouveau driver
• Ubuntu update for linux-oem-7.0
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp and more
• Ubuntu update for linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15, linux-nvidia-tegra-igx
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15 and more