Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98657

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Main Vulnerability Database Vulnerabilities #VU156970

Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98657

Published: October 22, 2026


Vulnerability identifier: #VU156970
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-2026-98657
CWE-ID: CWE-416
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability: No public exploit available

Vulnerability details

The vulnerability allows a local user to potentially cause a denial of service by accessing freed kernel memory.

The vulnerability exists due to a use-after-free in the Linux kernel pulsedlight proximity driver when runtime power management setup fails during device probing. The error handling frees the device structure without unregistering the IIO device, leaving live sysfs and character device nodes pointing to freed memory. A local user can access these stale device nodes to potentially trigger a kernel crash.


Affected software

Linux kernel
SUSE Linux Micro
SUSE Linux Micro Extras
kernel-default
kernel-64kb
kernel-64kb-debugsource
kernel-64kb-devel
kernel-default-devel
kernel-syms
kernel-obs-build
kernel-obs-build-debugsource
kernel-default-debugsource
kernel-default-devel-debuginfo

How to mitigate CVE-2026-98657

Install security update from vendor's repository.

Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
kernel-default - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1
kernel-64kb - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1
kernel-64kb-debugsource - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1
kernel-64kb-devel - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1
kernel-default-devel - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1
kernel-syms - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1
kernel-obs-build - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1
kernel-obs-build-debugsource - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1
kernel-default-debugsource - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1
kernel-default-devel-debuginfo - update to 6.4.0-159998.55.1

External References

Related Security Bulletins