CVE-2026-98789

Description

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter) memory allocator. When releasing memory, objects queued while a delayed cleanup cycle is already in progress can fail to be reclaimed. A local user can exploit this vulnerability through repeated BPF operations, causing an unbounded memory leak that may lead to a Denial of Service (DoS) via system memory exhaustion.

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 HatNVDcve.org
Base Score4.4N/AN/A
Attack VectorLocalN/AN/A
Attack ComplexityLowN/AN/A
Privileges RequiredHighN/AN/A
User InteractionNoneN/AN/A
ScopeUnchangedN/AN/A
ConfidentialityNoneN/AN/A
Integrity ImpactNoneN/AN/A
Availability ImpactHighN/AN/A

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (Other); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU)

An attacker that can influence the allocation of resources that are not properly released could deplete the available resource pool and prevent all other processes from accessing the same type of resource. Frequently-affected resources include memory, CPU, disk space, power or battery, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions

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