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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-98840

critical Nessus Plugin ID 367025

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.

 - vc_screen: reload vc pointer before if (ret) in vcs_write() to avoid UAF The reload of 'vc' added by commit 8fb9ea65c9d1 (vc_screen: reload load of struct vc_data pointer in vcs_write() to avoid UAF) sits after the 'if (ret)' block, so the copy-failure break path exits the loop without reloading vc. If the vc was kfree()'d via vc_port_destruct during the unlocked copy_from_user() window, the post-loop 'if (written && vc) vcs_scr_updated(vc)' is reached with a stale non-NULL vc. The '&& vc' guard from commit a287620312dc (vc_screen: fix null-ptr-deref in vcs_notifier() during concurrent vcs_write) only handles the NULL case, not this stale-non-NULL case; vcs_notifier() then reads param->vc->vc_num from freed memory: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in vcs_notifier+0x7c/0xd0 Read of size 2 at addr ffff888007149190 Call Trace: vcs_notifier+0x7c/0xd0 atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x70/0xa0 vcs_scr_updated+0x77/0xa0 vcs_write+0x71b/0x7e0 Allocated by task: vc_allocate -> con_install -> tty_open Freed by task: kfree <- vt_ioctl (VT_DISALLOCATE -> vc_port_destruct) Move the reload to immediately after console_lock(), before 'if (ret)', so every break path below passes a fresh vc to the post-loop vcs_scr_updated().
 (CVE-2026-98840)

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

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-98840

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 367025

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_98840.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: Low

Score: 3

Percentile: 23.68

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-2026-98840

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, 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-2026-98840