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CVE-2026-98840

vc_screen: reload vc pointer before if (ret) in vcs_write() to avoid UAF

Published
Last modified
published
Not listed in CISA KEV
Fix
Fixed in 5.10.273, 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.113, and 4 more
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vc_screen: reload vc pointer before if (ret) in vcs_write() to avoid UAF The reload of 'vc' added by commit 8fb9ea65c9d1 ("vc_screen: reload load of struct vc_data pointer in vcs_write() to avoid UAF") sits after the 'if (ret)' block, so the copy-failure break path exits the loop without reloading vc. If the vc was kfree()'d via vc_port_destruct during the unlocked copy_from_user() window, the post-loop 'if (written && vc) vcs_scr_updated(vc)' is reached with a stale non-NULL vc. The '&& vc' guard from commit a287620312dc ("vc_screen: fix null-ptr-deref in vcs_notifier() during concurrent vcs_write") only handles the NULL case, not this stale-non-NULL case; vcs_notifier() then reads param->vc->vc_num from freed memory: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in vcs_notifier+0x7c/0xd0 Read of size 2 at addr ffff888007149190 Call Trace: vcs_notifier+0x7c/0xd0 atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x70/0xa0 vcs_scr_updated+0x77/0xa0 vcs_write+0x71b/0x7e0 Allocated by task: vc_allocate -> con_install -> tty_open Freed by task: kfree <- vt_ioctl (VT_DISALLOCATE -> vc_port_destruct) Move the reload to immediately after console_lock(), before 'if (ret)', so every break path below passes a fresh vc to the post-loop vcs_scr_updated().

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. Record last updated

Affected versions

  • Linux Linux

    From 5.10.260 · fixed in 5.10.273; From 5.15.211 · fixed in 5.15.224; From 6.1.177 · fixed in 6.1.191; From 6.6.144 · fixed in 6.6.160; From 6.12.95 · fixed in 6.12.113; From 6.18.37 · fixed in 6.18.56; From 7.0.14 · fixed in 7.1; From 7.1.2 · fixed in 7.2

  • Linux Linux

    7.2

  • KernelLinux

    fixed in 6.6.160; From 6.7.0 · fixed in 6.12.113; From 6.13.0 · fixed in 6.18.56; From 6.19.0 · fixed in 7.2.10

References 8

git.kernel.org