Linux Kernel up to 7.2.8/7.3-rc4 winwing winwing_init_ff use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.8/7.3-rc4. It has been declared as critical. This impacts the function winwing_init_ff of the component winwing. Executing a manipulation can lead to use after free. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-98645. The attack can only be executed locally. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.8/7.3-rc4. It has been declared as critical. This vulnerability affects the function winwing_init_ff of the component winwing. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: HID: winwing: fix use-after-free in force feedback teardown winwing_init_ff() passes the driver's private data, allocated with devm_kzalloc() in winwing_probe(), as the effect context to input_ff_create_memless(). The memoryless force-feedback core takes ownership of that pointer and frees it with kfree() from input_ff_destroy() (ml_ff_destroy()) when the input device is destroyed. Freeing a devm-managed allocation with kfree() is an invalid free, and the same object is then released again by devres when the HID device is torn down, a double free. As the allocation also embeds the LED class devices, their timers and work item live on freed memory and the slab gets corrupted. This triggers on unbind, rmmod, hot-unplug and on system suspend, where the firmware cache walks the now-corrupt devres list. KASAN reports: BUG: KASAN: invalid-free in input_ff_destroy Allocated by task N: winwing_probe Pass NULL as the memless context instead and fetch the driver data from the input device in winwing_play_effect(): the HID core already stores the hid_device as the input device's drvdata. The force-feedback core then owns nothing that it must not free.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-98645 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. Local access is required to approach this attack. Additional levels of successful authentication are needed for exploitation. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/18/2026).

Upgrading to version 7.2.9 or 7.3-rc5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 2b25f11ec52ea0a82334d5b83ee321f6b0a35923/a1a5ad37e50ceb192c07ac7e2d7143638cd4d110 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 7.3-rc1
• 7.3-rc2
• 7.3-rc3
• 7.3-rc4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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