NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98618

Vulnerability identifier: #VU156928

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 6.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98618

CWE-ID: CWE-476

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local privileged user to cause a denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to a null pointer dereference caused by insufficient NAPI vector allocation in the Linux kernel fbnic driver when setting up the maximum number of standalone channels. A local privileged user can trigger resource setup for this configuration to cause a kernel crash and denial of service.

The affected configuration uses 64 Tx queues and 64 Rx queues.

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/16ff1023213cc39c1a7ce737205c2a1a53c3a716
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1f4c73064a50f53d596c6f1d06d2d700f43c4b32
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6c903188b67617070017305a325fa326f270a43d
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9843e5fabd6ab296df9c025b1d0e5bf79a6b8a08

• NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel meta fbnic driver
• Ubuntu update for linux-oem-7.0
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp and more