Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-98551

critical Nessus Plugin ID 366988

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- perf/core: Fill branch entries with a single assignment perf_clear_branch_entry_bitfields() clears the bitfields of struct perf_branch_entry one by one and leaves from/to alone, since callers overwrite those straight away. The list has to be kept in sync with the struct by hand and has already fallen behind:
new_type and priv were added to perf_branch_entry and never added here. Only BRBE writes those two, and neither for every record. brbe_set_perf_entry_type() leaves new_type alone for a branch type it does not recognise, and priv is not set for source-only records. arm_pmuv3.c allocates the per-CPU branch stack with kmalloc(), so such a record reaches userspace with whatever the slot held: uninitialised kmalloc() data on the first pass over the buffer, the previous record's values after that. Nothing under arch/x86/events/ writes either field, so only arm64 is affected. Assign the whole entry at each site instead. Everything not named is then zero, and there is no list to keep in sync. The bitfields add up to exactly 64 bits, so the struct has no padding to leave undefined. perf_clear_branch_entry_bitfields() has no callers left, so remove it. perf_entry_from_brbe_regset() assigns an empty literal instead, since it fills from/to conditionally. PERF_BR_SPEC_NA is 0, so dropping the explicit spec assignment changes nothing. (CVE-2026-98551)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 366988

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_98551.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 10/18/2026

Updated: 10/18/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.3

Percentile: 53.47

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-98551

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:linux

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/18/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-98551

Detections

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