CVE-2026-98839 json
vt: selection: Fix unsigned underflow and slab-out-of-bounds read in paste_selection()
published 2026-10-18 21 d ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2026-103779
- 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 5%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
vt: selection: Fix unsigned underflow and slab-out-of-bounds read in paste_selection()
In paste_selection(), the loop copies min_t(unsigned int, vc_sel.buf_len - pasted,tty->receive_room) bytes per iteration into tty_ldisc_receive_buf() and increments pasted += count.
Because the selection mutex (vc_sel.lock) is dropped inside the loop Whenever the line discipline buffer fills up and paste_selection() sleeps on tty->write_wait, a concurrent TIOCLINUX (TIOCL_SETSEL) ioctl can replace vc_sel.buffer with a shorter selection and reduce vc_sel.buf_len below pasted.
When paste_selection() resumes, vc_sel.buf_len - pasted underflows as an unsigned integer to a large positive value, causing tty_ldisc_receive_buf(ld, vc_sel.buffer + pasted, NULL, count) to read up to 4094 bytes out-of-bounds past the newly allocated vc_sel.buffer.
Fix this by terminating the loop when pasted >= vc_sel.buf_len.
Kernel stack trace (Linux 7.3.0-rc3): ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in n_tty_receive_buf_common+0xa01/0x1650 Read of size 4094 at addr ffff888101c58010 by task kworker/u17:1/65 Workqueue: events_unbound flush_to_ldisc Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x70/0xa0 print_report+0x153/0x4c6 kasan_report+0xf1/0x120 kasan_check_range+0x11c/0x200 __asan_memcpy+0x29/0x70 n_tty_receive_buf_common+0xa01/0x1650 tty_ldisc_receive_buf+0x66/0x110 tty_port_default_receive_buf+0x6b/0xb0 flush_to_ldisc+0x1b4/0x410 process_one_work+0x6ff/0x1110 worker_thread+0x4a8/0xb70 kthread+0x307/0x3e0 ret_from_fork+0x3ed/0x680 </TASK> ==================================================================
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 3.17, 4.5, 4.10, 4.15, 4.20, 5.5, 5.6, 6.18.56, 7.2.10, 7.3
- linux Debian 14 7.2.10-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98839
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-2026-98839 updated cvss 6.1
kernel: vt: selection: Fix unsigned underflow and slab-out-of-bounds read in paste_selection()
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
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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 morenot 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
0.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-98839
- NVD CVE-2026-98839
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