Linux Kernel up to 6.12.112/6.18.55/7.2.9/7.3-rc5 HID BPF missing initialization

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
8.0	$5k-$25k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as very critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.112/6.18.55/7.2.9/7.3-rc5. This impacts an unknown function of the component HID BPF. The manipulation leads to missing initialization. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-98860. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.112/6.18.55/7.2.9/7.3-rc5. This issue affects an unknown code of the component HID BPF. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a missing initialization vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-456. The product does not initialize critical variables, which causes the execution environment to use unexpected values. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: HID: bpf: cast size to ssize_t when checking hid_bpf_hw_request As reported by Sashiko: If a transport driver encounters a hardware error and returns a negative error code such as -EPIPE, ret is implicitly promoted to size_t when compared against size. This causes the negative error code to evaluate as a large positive number, making the (ret > size) condition true. This silently converts the hardware error into a success return value and copies the unmodified buffer back, which could leave BPF programs operating on uninitialized or stale data. Fix this by casting size into ssize_t to return the actual negative error code.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-98860 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. Additional levels of successful authentication are needed for exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/18/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.12.113, 6.18.56, 7.2.10 or 7.3-rc6 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 8b85ef0f561039e249c3f883c5280a1449c6dbee/97be6396817bd3b11d06239010d27902940bfaa9/f9f808227554b2c116fd07dd2328ecd74ea3f411/3afefbfe55c2a8a0c4bdf6f4cc1f773da120027c is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2026-103800). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.112
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 6.18.50
• 6.18.51
• 6.18.52
• 6.18.53
• 6.18.54
• 6.18.55
• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5
• 7.2.6
• 7.2.7
• 7.2.8
• 7.2.9
• 7.3-rc1
• 7.3-rc2
• 7.3-rc3
• 7.3-rc4
• 7.3-rc5

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 8.4
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 8.0

VulDB Base Score: 8.4
VulDB Temp Score: 8.0
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Missing initialization
CWE: CWE-456 / CWE-453
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.12.113/6.18.56/7.2.10/7.3-rc6
Patch: 8b85ef0f561039e249c3f883c5280a1449c6dbee/97be6396817bd3b11d06239010d27902940bfaa9/f9f808227554b2c116fd07dd2328ecd74ea3f411/3afefbfe55c2a8a0c4bdf6f4cc1f773da120027c

Timelineinfo

09/25/2026 CVE reserved
10/18/2026 +23 days Advisory disclosed
10/18/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
10/18/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-98860 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-98860
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-421859
EUVD: 🔒

Entryinfo

Created: 10/18/2026 18:34
Updated: 10/18/2026 19:50
Changes: 10/18/2026 18:34 (58), 10/18/2026 19:50 (1)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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