CVE-2026-98947 json
vsock: Fix memory leak in vmci_transport_recv_dgram_cb()
published 19d ago modified 19d ago also EUVD-2026-108921
- 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 6%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
vsock: Fix memory leak in vmci_transport_recv_dgram_cb()
During the closure of a datagram socket, the vmci_transport_recv_dgram_cb() function may be called, which will add the packets to the socket's backlog; then, after the receive queue is cleared, the __release_sock() function will move the packet back from the socket's backlog to the receive queue, which will lead to a memory leak.
sock_close __sock_release __vsock_release // take ownership by user-space lock_sock_nested sock_set_flag(sk, SOCK_DEAD) vmci_transport_release vmci_dispatch_dgs vmci_datagram_invoke_guest_handler vmci_transport_recv_dgram_cb sk_receive_skb if (!sock_owned_by_user(sk)) [...] (!) else if sk_add_backlog() [...] (!) skb_queue_purge(&sk->sk_receive_queue)
release_sock __release_sock // move all packets from the backlog // to the receive queue (!) sk_backlog_rcv vsock_queue_rcv_skb [...] __sock_queue_rcv_skb if (!sock_flag(sk, SOCK_DEAD)) // Since the socket is "dead", the function will not // be called sk->sk_data_ready(sk) sock_release_ownership(sk); sock_put
Add a receive queue cleanup in the socket destructor to fix this.
syzkaller report:
unreferenced object 0xffff8880117bfb80 (size 240): comm "irq/56-vmw_vmci", pid 205, jiffies 4295064448 (age 73.992s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 78 dc 26 1e 80 88 ff ff 78 dc 26 1e 80 88 ff ff x.&.....x.&..... 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 c0 da 26 1e 80 88 ff ff ..........&..... backtrace: [<ffffffff82be8d97>] __alloc_skb+0x287/0x330 net/core/skbuff.c:505 [<ffffffffa114bcbd>] vmci_transport_recv_dgram_cb+0xbd/0x210 [vmw_vsock_vmci_transport] [<ffffffffa05072c6>] vmci_datagram_invoke_guest_handler+0x366/0x450 [vmw_vmci] [<ffffffffa050ad75>] vmci_dispatch_dgs+0x235/0x490 [vmw_vmci] [<ffffffffa050b025>] vmci_interrupt+0x55/0x290 [vmw_vmci] [<ffffffff8137ad2b>] irq_thread_fn+0x8b/0x1a0 kernel/irq/manage.c:1205 [<ffffffff8137c7ae>] irq_thread+0x28e/0x530 kernel/irq/manage.c:1314 [<ffffffff81253dd6>] kthread+0x2e6/0x3a0 kernel/kthread.c:376 [<ffffffff81004392>] ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:295
Found by InfoTeCS on behalf of Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 7.3
- linux Debian 13 6.12.113-1
- linux Debian 14 7.2.11-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98947
- linux Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-10.10
- linux-aws Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-1004.4
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-1004.4
- linux-raspi Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-1004.4
- linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-10.10.1
- linux-oracle Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-1004.4
- linux-realtime Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-10.10.1
ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98947
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
Is CVE-2026-98947 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-2026-98947 updated cvss 3.3
kernel: kernel: Denial of Service via memory leak in vsock VMCI datagram handling
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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”
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 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 6% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-98947
- NVD CVE-2026-98947
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.