Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98913

Vulnerability identifier: #VU157597

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 4.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98913

CWE-ID: CWE-772

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local privileged user to leak device references, potentially degrading system availability.

The vulnerability exists due to missing release of a PTP PCI device reference in the Linux kernel ThunderX network driver's nicvf_probe() function when initialization fails after cavium_ptp_get() acquires the reference. A local privileged user can trigger affected initialization failure paths to leave device references unreleased, potentially causing resource retention and degrading system availability.

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/2bcf59eefb9f00a2b1d426b639ee49c305a80695
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3a2eedb172e777f2c8608395eec42250fb355dae
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/916d74343cd60ef7c3d433bd417d26ba31642c09
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c8bc44a1d86d5b432ec7f5a6f30b4e719a047374
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/df3d586ecc580623edadec71a6ffdf4c79e2a8e8

• Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime in Linux kernel cavium thunder driver
• Ubuntu update for linux-oem-7.0
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp and more