CVE-2026-98543

Status: ReceivedUnscored—

Severity—Unscored

Exploitation probability0.20 %higher than 9% of CVEs

Active exploitationNonot in the CISA catalog

Public exploitNot knownno public code found

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bpf: fs/xattr: don't assume the inode is locked in path_unlink/path_rmdir

bpf_lsm_has_d_inode_locked() makes the verifier rewrite bpf_[set|remove]_dentry_xattr() to the _locked variants, which assume that the caller already holds the inode's i_rwsem. The path_unlink and path_rmdir hooks are listed, but security_path_unlink() and security_path_rmdir() run before vfs_unlink()/vfs_rmdir() take the victim inode's i_rwsem, so a sleepable BPF LSM program attached to either hook mutates the victim's xattrs without the lock held.

Drop the two path hooks from d_inode_locked_hooks so that the verifier keeps the locking bpf_[set|remove]_dentry_xattr() variants, which take the lock themselves.

CVSS

NVD hasn't assigned a CVSS score to this CVE (common since the April 2026 policy change).

Exploitation probability (EPSS)

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.20 %
Percentile among all scored CVEs: 9
Score date: 10/20/2026

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System, FIRST) estimates how likely a vulnerability is to be exploited in the wild within 30 days. It complements CVSS (impact) and CISA KEV (confirmed exploitation).

Affected technologies (1)

⚠ AI-inferred from the description — NVD hasn't analyzed this CVE yet, these aren't verified CPEs.

Linux — Linux Kernel^AI

References

Show 3 references

Raw JSON (NVD)

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{
  "id": "CVE-2026-98543",
  "cveTags": [],
  "metrics": {},
  "affected": [
    {
      "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
      "affectedData": [
        {
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "product": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "56467292794b800164df20c076c409ac548e56ec",
              "lessThan": "7504b677c4370c9e4b153c553ff8831c093b1ff6",
              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "56467292794b800164df20c076c409ac548e56ec",
              "lessThan": "640d37fbd34d03af727dbc567f48c0203d1de6b4",
              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "56467292794b800164df20c076c409ac548e56ec",
              "lessThan": "35d442ed1f86465e49df3119fb898f985186db13",
              "versionType": "git"
            }
          ],
          "programFiles": [
            "fs/bpf_fs_kfuncs.c"
          ],
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected"
        },
        {
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "product": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "6.15"
            },
            {
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "0",
              "lessThan": "6.15",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.18.55",
              "versionType": "semver",
              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.18.*"
            },
            {
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.2.9",
              "versionType": "semver",
              "lessThanOrEqual": "7.2.*"
            },
            {
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.3",
              "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix",
              "lessThanOrEqual": "*"
            }
          ],
          "programFiles": [
            "fs/bpf_fs_kfuncs.c"
          ],
          "defaultStatus": "affected"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "published": "2026-10-18T16:17:06.200",
  "references": [
    {
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/35d442ed1f86465e49df3119fb898f985186db13",
      "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/640d37fbd34d03af727dbc567f48c0203d1de6b4",
      "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7504b677c4370c9e4b153c553ff8831c093b1ff6",
      "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
    }
  ],
  "vulnStatus": "Received",
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nbpf: fs/xattr: don't assume the inode is locked in path_unlink/path_rmdir\n\nbpf_lsm_has_d_inode_locked() makes the verifier rewrite\nbpf_[set|remove]_dentry_xattr() to the _locked variants, which assume\nthat the caller already holds the inode's i_rwsem.  The path_unlink and\npath_rmdir hooks are listed, but security_path_unlink() and\nsecurity_path_rmdir() run before vfs_unlink()/vfs_rmdir() take the\nvictim inode's i_rwsem, so a sleepable BPF LSM program attached to\neither hook mutates the victim's xattrs without the lock held.\n\nDrop the two path hooks from d_inode_locked_hooks so that the verifier\nkeeps the locking bpf_[set|remove]_dentry_xattr() variants, which take\nthe lock themselves."
    }
  ],
  "lastModified": "2026-10-19T10:19:10.220",
  "sourceIdentifier": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
}