rootpwn

high · CVSS v3 7.1

CVE-2026-98016

The Linux kernel mlx5e driver suffered a use‑after‑free race during concurrent teardown of TC sample rules, potentially allowing memory corr

Overview

The Linux kernel mlx5e driver suffered a use‑after‑free race during concurrent teardown of TC sample rules, potentially allowing memory corruption. This flaw can cause kernel crashes or privilege escalation on affected systems. It was assigned CVE‑2026‑98016 with high severity.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Fix use-after-free race in sample_restore_put() Concurrent teardown of TC sample rules sharing the same restore context may re-read restore->count after dropping restore_lock. At that point another thread may already have completed cleanup and freed the restore object. Use the result of the refcount decrement while holding restore_lock to determine whether cleanup is needed.

Impact

The vulnerability can compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability by enabling arbitrary code execution or denial‑of‑service. System administrators, cloud providers, and container orchestrators that rely on Mellanox ConnectX networking are most at risk.

Remediation

Apply the latest kernel update that includes the mlx5e use‑after‑free fix (e.g., kernel 6.6 or newer). Reboot the affected hosts after patching. If immediate patching is not possible, disable TC sample rules or temporarily unload the mlx5e module to prevent concurrent teardown.

Risk context

High severity (CVSS 7.1) with no EPSS data. The flaw poses a significant risk to systems using the mlx5e driver, warranting prompt patching.

Affected products

  • Linux kernel
  • mlx5e driver
  • Mellanox ConnectX
  • NVIDIA Mellanox
  • Open vSwitch
  • Kubernetes networking

Scores

Severity
high
CVSS v2
5.6
CVSS v3
7.1
CVSS v4
—
EPSS
—

kernel use-after-free mlx5e networking high-severity privilege-escalation DoS

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