CVE-2026-98840: vulnerability in Linux
vc_screen: reload vc pointer before if (ret) in vcs_write() to avoid UAF
Published · Updated
3Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.
ssvc Trackepss 0.2%
exploitation probability
0.2%top 94% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
nono source reports it
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
vc_screen: reload vc pointer before if (ret) in vcs_write() to avoid UAF
The reload of 'vc' added by commit 8fb9ea65c9d1 ("vc_screen: reload load
of struct vc_data pointer in vcs_write() to avoid UAF") sits after the
'if (ret)' block, so the copy-failure break path exits the loop without
reloading vc. If the vc was kfree()'d via vc_port_destruct during the
unlocked copy_from_user() window, the post-loop
'if (written && vc) vcs_scr_updated(vc)' is reached with a stale
non-NULL vc. The '&& vc' guard from commit a287620312dc ("vc_screen:
fix null-ptr-deref in vcs_notifier() during concurrent vcs_write") only
handles the NULL case, not this stale-non-NULL case; vcs_notifier() then
reads param->vc->vc_num from freed memory:
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in vcs_notifier+0x7c/0xd0
Read of size 2 at addr ffff888007149190
Call Trace:
vcs_notifier+0x7c/0xd0
atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x70/0xa0
vcs_scr_updated+0x77/0xa0
vcs_write+0x71b/0x7e0
Allocated by task: vc_allocate -> con_install -> tty_open
Freed by task: kfree <- vt_ioctl (VT_DISALLOCATE -> vc_port_destruct)
Move the reload to immediately after console_lock(), before 'if (ret)',
so every break path below passes a fresh vc to the post-loop
vcs_scr_updated().
Affected products
Linux · LinuxRelated CVEs — Linux
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References
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1485a3dd97ab1af2605243cabe6b604546d46dd1https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/226bd5603371cd9f6642cbb9e9a677f445de3530https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/233a2e190b12884d186027d0b86d43a48799b69chttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9dfcadc5e003fb250dd471db90144bd5366140e9https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c073d01f6f5367c3a4f07efd507274ed0d03acd0