CVE-2026-98374: Linux

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tcp: fix use-after-free of retransmit_skb_hint in tcp_send_synack() When tcp_send_synack() replaces the cloned SYN skb at the head of the retransmit queue with a copy, it frees the original with tcp_rtx_queue_unlink_and_free() and only repairs tp->highest_sack. tp->retransmit_skb_hint keeps pointing at the freed skbuff_fclone_cache object. The dangling hint is read in tcp_verify_retransmit_hint() and used as the root of the rbtree walk in tcp_xmit_retransmit_queue(). An unprivileged TFO client (sendmsg(MSG_FASTOPEN)) can arm the hint with an attacker-supplied ICMP fragmentation-needed message, after which a simultaneous open frees the armed SYN skb: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in tcp_mark_skb_lost (net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:1316) Read of size 4 at addr ffff88800604d928 by task swapper/1/0 Call Trace: tcp_mark_skb_lost (net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:1316) tcp_simple_retransmit (net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:3158) tcp_v4_err (net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c:587) Sync the hint to the copy.

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 5.11, before 5.15.222 (fixed in 5.15.222); from 5.16, before 6.1.189 (fixed in 6.1.189); from 6.2, before 6.6.158 (fixed in 6.6.158); from 6.7, before 6.12.112 (fixed in 6.12.112); from 6.13, before 6.18.55 (fixed in 6.18.55); from 6.19, before 7.2.9 (fixed in 7.2.9)

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