Double free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98515

Vulnerability identifier: #VU156816

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-2026-98515

CWE-ID: CWE-415

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local user to potentially cause a denial of service through kernel memory corruption.

The vulnerability exists due to a double-free in the nouveau driver's nvif_vmm_dtor() function when handling client initialization failure while opening a DRM device. A local user can trigger the affected failure path to cause repeated cleanup calls that free the same vmm->page allocation twice, corrupting kernel memory and potentially 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/023e7a01f8fb27799f0987b5bcda325d73a2904c
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/109a8d2d5b7d2719ebe09df3f9241023900b3846
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/279e5ac137370e274a09dd552547ae6bddd0d4d5
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/375901ac0f286e81be00a4126e57d488cb401884
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/872a5473c02a26c955be44d52b7ab2f8ea70a2cf
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/97077ac87afe9e91ec074ef0be64454e7ccbf344
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bf542ecd4f60d4689818d194e7ca74772fe0f8b5
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f09f4a536935b15539f2de9fe775a2641202be90

• Double free in Linux kernel nouveau nvif 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