Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98696

Vulnerability identifier: #VU157036

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 5.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98696

CWE-ID: CWE-416

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local privileged user to potentially cause a denial of service by crashing the kernel.

The vulnerability exists due to use-after-free in USB serial completion handlers when driver deregistration unbinds ports before ongoing I/O has stopped. A local privileged user can potentially trigger overlapping I/O and driver module unloading to cause completion handlers to access freed port data, which may crash the kernel.

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

Install security update from vendor's repository.

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

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/428d479a0d31460fbf5969ab262ccd673f1fac01
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/646e5b28b4fdbc1b828a2398d6ced2c1dd308a46
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9b085a06a0a411b0bcdf18b61c3ebf1be1c72ffe
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a1aa474768f69ea3a70da523f00f74c264cfa10e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7ad832b1144df19cbbaaa655625c6f984e85b9f

• Use-after-free in Linux kernel linux usb
• SUSE update for the Linux Kernel