CVE-2026-98831
Received Received - Intake

Memory Leak in Linux Kernel OverlayFS

Publication date: 2026-10-18

Last updated on: 2026-10-18

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: of/overlay: don't leak fragment references when changeset init fails init_overlay_changeset() stores the number of initialized fragments in ovcs->count only on full success. When find_target() or the __symbols__ lookup fails partway through, the target and overlay references taken for the fragments initialized so far are never dropped: free_overlay_changeset() bounds its cleanup loop by ovcs->count, which is still 0. Store the running count on the error path so free_overlay_changeset() puts whatever was set up. The store is guarded by ovcs->fragments because on the allocation-failure path cnt still holds the counting pass total while there is no fragments array; everywhere else cnt only counts fully-initialized fragments.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-10-18
Last Modified
2026-10-18
Generated
2026-10-18
AI Q&A
2026-10-18
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-98831
EUVD
EUVD-2026-103771

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 5 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
Linux Linux 61b4de4e0b384f4a22c55c3bada604da49cec4e1
Linux Linux 61b4de4e0b384f4a22c55c3bada604da49cec4e1
Linux Linux 61b4de4e0b384f4a22c55c3bada604da49cec4e1
Linux Linux 61b4de4e0b384f4a22c55c3bada604da49cec4e1
Linux Linux 4.15

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Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability in the Linux kernel involves a memory leak in the overlay filesystem code. When initializing an overlay changeset fails partway through, the system does not properly release references to fragments, leading to resource leaks.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability could cause system instability or resource exhaustion due to unreleased memory. It may lead to performance degradation or crashes in systems using overlay filesystems, particularly in environments with frequent filesystem operations.

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