CVE-2026-98261: Linux

High severity, CVSS 8.1. EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: Fix server use-after-free in cifs_chan_skip_or_disable() When a secondary channel is no longer supported by the server, cifs_chan_skip_or_disable() drops the channel reference with cifs_put_tcp_session() and then continues to use the server pointer by calling cifs_signal_cifsd_for_reconnect() on it and reading its primary_server pointer. cifs_put_tcp_session() can drop the last reference of the channel and tear it down, so both the channel and the primary server (whose reference is also dropped by cifs_put_tcp_session()) can be freed before they are signaled for reconnect. Signal the channel and the primary server and capture the primary server pointer before dropping the channel reference with cifs_put_tcp_session().

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 6.6.15, before 6.6.158 (fixed in 6.6.158); from 6.7.3, before 6.8 (fixed in 6.8); from 6.8, before 6.12.112 (fixed in 6.12.112); from 6.13, before 6.18.54 (fixed in 6.18.54); from 6.19, before 7.2.8 (fixed in 7.2.8)

Published 2026-10-06. Last modified 2026-10-07.