CVE-2026-98656
Description
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Industrial I/O (IIO) subsystem. A race condition occurs when deferred background tasks are not canceled prior to releasing trigger device structures, allowing a worker thread to access memory after it has been freed. A local user could exploit this flaw during device release to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) through a system crash or potentially corrupt kernel memory.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as having Moderate impact for Red Hat Enterprise Linux because exploitation requires local access, specific timing under a race condition, and the presence of active Industrial I/O (IIO) trigger devices, limiting the blast radius primarily to denial of service. Standard enterprise server deployments rarely configure or utilize IIO hardware or software triggers, which significantly reduces practical exposure. Additionally, earlier platforms such as RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 do not contain the vulnerable logic. An attacker would require local authenticated access and precise synchronization while an IIO trigger is dismantled to induce memory corruption or a system crash.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.7 | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | N/A | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
If the expired pointer is used in a read operation, an attacker might be able to control data read in by the application.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
If the expired pointer references a memory location that is not accessible to the product, or points to a location that is "malformed" (such as NULL) or larger than expected by a read or write operation, then a crash may occur.
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
If the expired pointer is used in a function call, or points to unexpected data in a write operation, then code execution may be possible.
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