CVE-2026-98873 json
netfilter: nf_conntrack_expect: zero at allocation time
published 19d ago modified 17d ago also EUVD-2026-108719
- 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:
netfilter: nf_conntrack_expect: zero at allocation time
There are occasional LLM hints wrt. leaking uninitialized data to userspace via ctnetlink. Just zero at allocation time, expectations are not frequently used these days.
Intentionally keeps _init as-is because we could theoretically support re-init, so add the missing exp->dir there.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 7.2
- linux Debian 12 6.1.190-1
- linux Debian 13 6.12.111-1
- linux Debian 14 7.2.6-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98873
- linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-202.212
- linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-149.149
- linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42
- linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1119.126
- linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1069.74
- linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.17
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1120.130
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1073.81
ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98873
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 Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.159.1-1
azure linux advisories AZL-110596
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/39cb6ff947c16a576ea68c5f272e634acdcb0085 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/90545aa07a183887e9d72ce573c18e08f62e2c91 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/9c11d7ea5ff4dbe162e79f00188814ef5483c295 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/b7f3ee925aee9f1f547d539bc03c35433c238958 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/824397af7bfe14edad374c64253dae0187ca623d commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/a39ecb856514274c80d0fac4d128dba6b266a8ed commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/241ccd2fed9051db443aadce248fc0ab30f55e97 commit
Is CVE-2026-98873 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.
Check with FencerVendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2026-98873 updated cvss 3.3
kernel: netfilter: nf_conntrack_expect: zero at allocation time
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 moreaffected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
-
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-9affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
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
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/39cb6ff947c16a576ea68c5f272e634acdcb0085
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/90545aa07a183887e9d72ce573c18e08f62e2c91
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/9c11d7ea5ff4dbe162e79f00188814ef5483c295
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/b7f3ee925aee9f1f547d539bc03c35433c238958
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/824397af7bfe14edad374c64253dae0187ca623d
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/a39ecb856514274c80d0fac4d128dba6b266a8ed
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/241ccd2fed9051db443aadce248fc0ab30f55e97
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-98873
- NVD CVE-2026-98873
Fencer Intel 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.