CVE-2026-98098
Undergoing Analysis
Undergoing Analysis - In Progress
NULL Pointer Dereference in Linux Kernel TIPC Protocol
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-98098, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-09-25
Last updated on: 2026-10-03
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tipc: fix NULL deref in tipc_named_node_up() on empty publication list
User-space applications can bind a large number of service addresses to
one or more sockets. Each binding of a local-scope service address inserts
one entry (publication) into the TIPC name table. If the number of these
publications exceeds TIPC_MAX_PUBL (65535), protocol service types
(such as node state and link state) are no longer inserted into the name
table. This causes two issues:
1. User-space applications subscribing to node or link up/down events
stop receiving notifications.
2. A NULL pointer dereference can occur:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000000d0
...
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 7.2.0-rc4-default+ #5 PREEMPT(full)
...
RIP: 0010:tipc_named_node_up (./include/linux/skbuff.h:2251 net/tipc/name_distr.c:195 net/tipc/name_distr.c:221)
...
Call Trace:
<IRQ>
tipc_node_write_unlock (net/tipc/node.c:428)
tipc_rcv (net/tipc/node.c:934 net/tipc/node.c:2189)
tipc_udp_recv (net/tipc/udp_media.c:389)
Thread 1 (tipc_net_finalize) | Thread 2 (named_distribute)
-----------------------------|-----------------------------
| ...
| list_for_each_entry(publ, pls, binding_node) {
| ...
| __skb_queue_tail(list, skb);
| ...
| }
| ...
| hdr = buf_msg(skb_peek_tail(list));
... |
tipc_nametbl_publish(); |
If 'tipc_nametbl_publish()' (Thread 1) fails because the number of
local publications reaches TIPC_MAX_PUBL, list (Thread 2) will be empty. As a
result, NULL is passed to 'buf_msg()', leading to a NULL pointer dereference.
Fix these issues by allowing protocol service types (node state, link state,
and topology server) to be inserted into the name table unconditionally.
This ensures that users subscribing to these types always receive
notifications. In addition, the maximum number of local user publications is
reduced to (TIPC_MAX_PUBL - 1). This ensures that the maximum bulk size
calculated in tipc_link_set_queue_limits() remains valid.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | kernel | 7.2.0-rc4 |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
