Race condition in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98561

Vulnerability identifier: #VU156865

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 5.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98561

CWE-ID: CWE-362

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

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

The vulnerability exists due to a race condition in the nfp_net_ipsec_rx() function of the Linux kernel's Netronome NFP driver when receiving IPsec packets concurrently with state deletion. A local user can trigger overlapping receive processing and state deletion to cause reference acquisition on an xfrm_state whose reference count has already reached zero, potentially causing a kernel crash.

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/1a983a4e14c635c40354be110cd9a1a5c94e01e6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8468d05aa08dc430b5675beadf6f6fb8943f170b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c1b1639fb138db52fcfbd1747e92f2454076c6d5
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dd765023bb54f9650f8b9137906fb2c4a554dd1d
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fe6c8ea8bfd5d1253bb0de682b1fcc2c4bb92488

• Race condition in Linux kernel nfp crypto driver
• Ubuntu update for linux-oem-7.0
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp and more