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CVE-2026-98694 json

thunderbolt: Fix KASAN reported use-after-free when request is canceled

published 24d ago modified 12d ago also EUVD-2026-103948

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:

thunderbolt: Fix KASAN reported use-after-free when request is canceled

Alan reported that when doing stress testing sometimes KASAN notices use-after-free during control channel operation (stripped down keeping the relevant parts):

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in tb_cfg_request_sync+0x240/0x250 [thunderbolt] Read of size 24 at addr ffff88811067f290 by task kworker/u40:2/1760 <TASK> tb_cfg_request_sync+0x240/0x250 [thunderbolt] tb_cfg_read_raw+0x367/0x510 [thunderbolt] tb_cfg_read+0xec/0x240 [thunderbolt] tb_port_get_link_generation+0x258/0x420 [thunderbolt] tb_usb3_consumed_bandwidth+0x1c1/0x2c0 [thunderbolt] tb_tunnel_consumed_bandwidth+0xfd/0x910 [thunderbolt] tb_available_bandwidth+0x5f2/0xeb0 [thunderbolt] tb_recalc_estimated_bandwidth+0x2a0/0x1bc0 [thunderbolt] tb_handle_dp_bandwidth_request+0x1897/0x5e20 [thunderbolt] process_one_work+0x675/0x1230 worker_thread+0x5e6/0xf70 kthread+0x365/0x470 ret_from_fork+0x54d/0x710 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK>

Allocated by task 1760: __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x1ee/0x550 tb_cfg_read_raw+0x1d3/0x510 [thunderbolt] tb_cfg_read+0xec/0x240 [thunderbolt] tb_port_get_link_generation+0x258/0x420 [thunderbolt] tb_usb3_consumed_bandwidth+0x1c1/0x2c0 [thunderbolt] tb_tunnel_consumed_bandwidth+0xfd/0x910 [thunderbolt] tb_available_bandwidth+0x5f2/0xeb0 [thunderbolt] tb_recalc_estimated_bandwidth+0x2a0/0x1bc0 [thunderbolt] tb_handle_dp_bandwidth_request+0x1897/0x5e20 [thunderbolt] process_one_work+0x675/0x1230 worker_thread+0x5e6/0xf70 kthread+0x365/0x470 ret_from_fork+0x54d/0x710 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

Freed by task 926: kfree+0x18f/0x4a0 tb_cfg_request_put+0xb7/0xe0 [thunderbolt] tb_cfg_request_work+0x82/0x120 [thunderbolt] process_one_work+0x675/0x1230 worker_thread+0x5e6/0xf70 kthread+0x365/0x470 ret_from_fork+0x54d/0x710 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

Second to last potentially related work creation: __queue_work+0x575/0xd00 queue_work_on+0x77/0x80 tb_cfg_request_cancel+0xc7/0x260 [thunderbolt] tb_cfg_request_sync+0x1f6/0x250 [thunderbolt] tb_cfg_read_raw+0x367/0x510 [thunderbolt] tb_cfg_read+0xec/0x240 [thunderbolt] tb_port_get_link_generation+0x258/0x420 [thunderbolt] tb_usb3_consumed_bandwidth+0x1c1/0x2c0 [thunderbolt] tb_tunnel_consumed_bandwidth+0xfd/0x910 [thunderbolt] tb_available_bandwidth+0x5f2/0xeb0 [thunderbolt] tb_recalc_estimated_bandwidth+0x2a0/0x1bc0 [thunderbolt] tb_handle_dp_bandwidth_request+0x1897/0x5e20 [thunderbolt] process_one_work+0x675/0x1230 worker_thread+0x5e6/0xf70 kthread+0x365/0x470 ret_from_fork+0x54d/0x710 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

The last stack trace is helpful because it shows that we are cancelling a request and looking at tb_cfg_request_cancel() what might happen is that tb_cfg_request_work() completes right before tb_cfg_request_cancel() starts and because of this it will call schedule_work() queueing the same work to run again. However, it is already removed from the request_queue and reference count is dropped so when tb_cfg_request_work() triggers again it will access memory that is already released.

Fix this so that we first make sure a cancelled request is not handed away from tb_cfg_request_find() or scheduled to run. Then instead of relying on the worker to clean up the request we will do it in tb_cfg_request_cancel() after the work is canceled from running. Make tb_cfg_request_dequeue() release the request only if it was actually removed from the queue.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 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-2026-98694

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-149.149
  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-43.43
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1069.74
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.18
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1073.81
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.19
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1068.77
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1010.11

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98694

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-source Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1
  • kernel-default Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1
  • kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1.159998.21.42
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:24550-1SUSE-SU-2026:5091-1

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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-2026-98694 updated cvss 4.7

kernel: thunderbolt: Fix KASAN reported use-after-free when request is canceled

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more 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-9
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    not 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, 2026-11-11).

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

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