Resource exhaustion in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98881

Vulnerability identifier: #VU157631

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 4.8 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-98881

CWE-ID: CWE-400

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service by prolonging the blocking of network configuration operations.

The vulnerability exists due to excessive synchronization waits in the Linux kernel br_multicast_dev_del() function when tearing down bridge devices. A local user can trigger bridge device teardown to cause excessive RTNL lock contention through a stale rcu_barrier() call, delaying other network operations.

Linux kernel
Ubuntu
linux-nvidia-tegra (Ubuntu package)
linux-nvidia-tegra-igx (Ubuntu package)
linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 (Ubuntu package)
linux (Ubuntu package)
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package)
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package)
linux-aws (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-nvidia-tegra (Ubuntu package) - update to 5.15.0-1070.72
linux-nvidia-tegra-igx (Ubuntu package) - update to 5.15.0-1059.59
linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 (Ubuntu package) - update to 5.15.0-1070.72~20.04.1
linux (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-42.42
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.18
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1015.16
linux-aws (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.17
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/0443f6aac6bf6a91e406273fdda11497cef6ad07
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/25ae123db10ba9ab890b56bcdb0a4363aee8529a
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/35f9f11740515a10b084adfb1ce691351f2452ab
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/372ee8fbe0f796031c60f676ec90f0788c26523d
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/39679927fa7aaf4601119f7234342d1b5d4f6f84
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac0e823a228f94ad9d7a3d876cc07e59a7afb806
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f0018acf0b66f93a292667c9a9c2a26c570cf270

• Resource exhaustion in Linux kernel bridge
• Ubuntu update for linux-oem-7.0
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp and more
• Ubuntu update for linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15, linux-nvidia-tegra-igx
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15 and more