CVE-2026-98258

NameCVE-2026-98258
DescriptionIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: posix-cpu-timers: Prevent freeing a timer which is queued on the expiry list Kijo analyzed another race in the POSIX CPU timer code: Commit bf635681c906 converted cpu_timer::firing from a tristate value to a boolean. This lost the distinction between "not owned by the firing list" and "still owned, but delivery was canceled". The resulting race is: expiry handler timer_settime() timer_delete() -------------- --------------- -------------- collect timer onto private firing list firing = true observes firing = true firing = false return TIMER_RETRY wait for handler observes firing = false finish deletion unhash and free timer resume list traversal read freed elist.next -> UAF The firing bit is clearly the wrong indicator since that commit. Check whether the timer is queued on the expiry list or not instead. If it is queued clear the firing bit to prevent signal delivery as before and return TIMER_RETRY so the caller unlocks the timer which allows the expiry code to make progress and remove it from the list.
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
linux (PTS)bookworm6.1.176-1fixed
bookworm (security)6.1.190-1fixed
trixie6.12.107-1fixed
trixie (security)6.12.113-1fixed
forky, sid7.2.12-1fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
linuxsourcebookworm(not affected)
linuxsourcetrixie(not affected)
linuxsource(unstable)7.2.8-1

Notes

[trixie] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
[bookworm] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
https://git.kernel.org/linus/c21eaa72f02fc6e85621cbe09d303d8fb8bd39cd (7.3-rc4)

Search for package or bug name: Reporting problems