CVE-2026-98258posix-cpu-timers: Prevent freeing a timer which is queued on the expiry list
- 7.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.19%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 91% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: posix-cpu-timers: Prevent freeing a timer which is queued on the expiry list Kijo analyzed another race in the POSIX CPU timer code: Commit bf635681c906 converted cpu_timer::firing from a tristate value to a boolean. This lost the distinction between "not owned by the firing list" and "still owned, but delivery was canceled". The resulting race is: expiry handler timer_settime() timer_delete() -------------- --------------- -------------- collect timer onto private firing list firing = true observes firing = true firing = false return TIMER_RETRY wait for handler observes firing = false finish deletion unhash and free timer resume list traversal read freed elist.next -> UAF The firing bit is clearly the wrong indicator since that commit. Check whether the timer is queued on the expiry list or not instead. If it is queued clear the firing bit to prevent signal delivery as before and return TIMER_RETRY so the caller unlocks the timer which allows the expiry code to make progress and remove it from the list.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Linux
- 11 days later
· 11 days later
Published
- 13 days later
· 13 days later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinuxCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Received | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.19% · top 91% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.
Affected products
- affected bf635681c906ad056d1fda325de8d1c12c9f8201 – < 9971dac1a77845ff467146915fcbb9170f6a8209
- affected bf635681c906ad056d1fda325de8d1c12c9f8201 – < 4336e3f47d9d516441066e9a65eaf076790d8d45
- affected bf635681c906ad056d1fda325de8d1c12c9f8201 – < c21eaa72f02fc6e85621cbe09d303d8fb8bd39cd
- affected 6.13
- unaffected < 6.13
- unaffected 6.18.54 – ≤ 6.18.*
- unaffected 7.2.8 – ≤ 7.2.*
- unaffected 7.3 – ≤ *
References
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-93186 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
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[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-98258)Record last updated .