CVE-2026-98831 json
of/overlay: don't leak fragment references when changeset init fails
published 2026-10-18 21 d ago modified 2026-10-30 9 d ago also EUVD-2026-103771
- cvss
- —
- not scored
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.2%
- EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 7%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
of/overlay: don't leak fragment references when changeset init fails
init_overlay_changeset() stores the number of initialized fragments in ovcs->count only on full success. When find_target() or the __symbols__ lookup fails partway through, the target and overlay references taken for the fragments initialized so far are never dropped: free_overlay_changeset() bounds its cleanup loop by ovcs->count, which is still 0.
Store the running count on the error path so free_overlay_changeset() puts whatever was set up. The store is guarded by ovcs->fragments because on the allocation-failure path cnt still holds the counting pass total while there is no fragments array; everywhere else cnt only counts fully-initialized fragments.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 5.10.273, 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.113, 6.18.56, 7.2.10, 7.3
- linux Debian 13 6.12.113-1
- linux Debian 14 7.2.10-1
- linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.113-1~deb12u1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98831
- kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.161.1-1
azure linux advisories AZL-109218
Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/c654f283d7db20648a5bbf979209f78d4fa9be3f commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/64517aeaa3d8b158e4d01321a095be48cb551251 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/bbe3dc64b28a14bd9ecb514bbf5115ac8472ed80 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/702b5db6e7b3865be70675d57d6fd7dde80d02b6 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/894573e2fdaeb1b15030b7eebc22615edf28a6cd commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/7a46f1917b320cc8762183b802301da02a191b6a commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/3a23fb158ba517b77a2e5258263bdfdaa480f758 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/1d62f0f2bc7edb12ed09f71203df0e47fa4efca4 commit
Vendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2026-98831 updated cvss 2.3
kernel: of/overlay: don't leak fragment references when changeset init fails
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9not affected: vulnerable code not present
Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf
Exploit prediction
0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/c654f283d7db20648a5bbf979209f78d4fa9be3f
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/64517aeaa3d8b158e4d01321a095be48cb551251
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/bbe3dc64b28a14bd9ecb514bbf5115ac8472ed80
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/702b5db6e7b3865be70675d57d6fd7dde80d02b6
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/894573e2fdaeb1b15030b7eebc22615edf28a6cd
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/7a46f1917b320cc8762183b802301da02a191b6a
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/3a23fb158ba517b77a2e5258263bdfdaa480f758
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/1d62f0f2bc7edb12ed09f71203df0e47fa4efca4
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-98831
- NVD CVE-2026-98831
Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.