What is CVE-2026-98160?

CVE-2026-98160 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, classified as a Release of Invalid Pointer or Reference flaw (CWE-763), affecting Linux kernel versions from 4.12 onward and patched in 5.10.270, 5.15.221, 6.1.188 and others. CVE-2026-98160 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-98160?

CVE-2026-98160 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-98160?

Yes, CVE-2026-98160 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.270, 5.15.221, 6.1.188 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 4.12 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2026-98160 actively exploited?

CVE-2026-98160 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is Release of Invalid Pointer or Reference (CWE-763)?

The product attempts to return a memory resource to the system but calls the wrong release function. See MITRE CWE for full details: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/763.html

CVE-2026-98160

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: staging: rtl8723bs: fix mismatched free of HalData in rtw_sdio_if1_init() padapter->HalData is allocated via vzalloc(), but incorrectly freed using kfree() in the rtw_sdio_if1_init() error path. Using kfree() to release this vmalloc-backed buffer can lead to memory corruption. Use rtw_hal_data_deinit() to pair the free correctly and free HalData with vfree(). The bug was first flagged by an experimental static analysis tool we are developing for kernel memory-management bugs. Manual inspection confirms that the issue is still present in current mainline. An x86_64 allyesconfig build showed no new warnings. As we do not have suitable RTL8723BS SDIO hardware to test with, no runtime testing was able to be performed.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2026-09-25

Last modified 2026-10-02

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

5.5

out of 10

Medium

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

Low

Integrity

None

Availability

High

Vector string

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness type

CWE-763

CVE-2026-98160 is a Release of Invalid Pointer or Reference vulnerability

What is Release of Invalid Pointer or Reference?

The product attempts to return a memory resource to the system but calls the wrong release function. Learn more on MITRE CWE

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 4.12 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.10.270, 5.15.221, 6.1.188, 6.6.157, 6.12.110, 6.18.52, 7.2.6, 7.3-rc1 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 4.12

Fixed in

✓ 5.10.270 5.10.x ✓ 5.15.221 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.188 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.157 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.110 6.12.x ✓ 6.18.52 6.18.x ✓ 7.2.6 7.2.x ✓ 7.3-rc1

References

8 total

Kernel Git
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/264676418b726baca7be49171e306b6aa05cceb0

Patch
Kernel Git
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/423574feaed192063ef0cd0813fb85425f39e539

Patch
Kernel Git
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4520d673d49dabfd42c008a33889251025f7d6d5

Patch
Kernel Git
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6c017ab2b0e1b60b5be94636c94720347213d78b

Patch
Kernel Git
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/737c928ff5092d7e55128a232c231248fc993777

Patch

Showing 5 of 8 references View all on NVD

Details

CVE ID CVE-2026-98160

Severity Medium

CVSS score 5.5 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2026-09-25

Modified 2026-10-02

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-98160?

CVE-2026-98160 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 , classified as a Release of Invalid Pointer or Reference flaw (CWE-763) . It affects Linux kernel versions from 4.12 onward and has been patched in 5.10.270, 5.15.221, 6.1.188 and others. CVE-2026-98160 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-98160?

CVE-2026-98160 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-98160?

Yes. CVE-2026-98160 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.270, 5.15.221, 6.1.188 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 4.12 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2026-98160 actively exploited?

No. CVE-2026-98160 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.