Linux Kernel up to 7.3-rc4 nouveau vmm.c nvif_vmm_dtor double free

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7.8	$0-$5k	1.80-

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.3-rc4. Affected is the function nvif_vmm_dtor of the file drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvif/vmm.c of the component nouveau. Executing a manipulation can lead to double free. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-98515. The attack is restricted to local execution. No exploit exists. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 7.3-rc4 and classified as very critical. This vulnerability affects the function nvif_vmm_dtor of the file drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvif/vmm.c of the component nouveau. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a double free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-415. The product calls free() twice on the same memory address, potentially leading to modification of unexpected memory locations. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/nouveau: fix double-free in nvif_vmm_dtor On failure, nouveau_cli_init() calls nouveau_cli_fini() to tear the client down. Then, nouveau_drm_open() also enters into its cleanup path and calls nouveau_cli_fini() AGAIN. nouveau_cli_fini() calls nouveau_vmm_fini(): void nouveau_vmm_fini(struct nouveau_vmm *vmm) { nouveau_svmm_fini(&vmm->svmm); nvif_vmm_dtor(&vmm->vmm); vmm->cli = NULL; } Inside nvif_vmm_dtor(), vmm->page is freed unconditionally: void nvif_vmm_dtor(struct nvif_vmm *vmm) { kfree(vmm->page); nvif_object_dtor(&vmm->object); } vmm->page is never cleared after being freed, so the second call of nvif_vmm_dtor() will cause a double-free. Found by fuzzing the nouveau driver with a modified Syzkaller: BUG: KASAN: double-free in nvif_vmm_dtor+0x31/0x50 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvif/vmm.c:194 Free of addr ffff888010fcdc30 by task syz.0.173/2567 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 2567 Comm: syz.0.173 Not tainted 7.2.0 #24 PREEMPT(lazy) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x95/0xe0 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xcb/0x5a0 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report_invalid_free+0xaa/0xd0 mm/kasan/report.c:557 check_slab_allocation+0xe4/0x110 mm/kasan/common.c:235 kasan_slab_pre_free include/linux/kasan.h:199 [inline] slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:2622 [inline] slab_free mm/slub.c:6377 [inline] kfree+0x192/0x590 mm/slub.c:6692 nvif_vmm_dtor+0x31/0x50 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvif/vmm.c:194 nouveau_vmm_fini+0x16/0x50 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_vmm.c:127 nouveau_cli_fini+0x10e/0x210 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_drm.c:225 nouveau_drm_open+0x24e/0x740 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_drm.c:1255 drm_file_alloc+0x5f2/0xad0 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_file.c:176 drm_open_helper+0x1d7/0x4a0 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_file.c:335 drm_open+0x190/0x3d0 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_file.c:388 drm_stub_open+0x1f2/0x460 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_drv.c:1211 chrdev_open+0x21c/0x660 fs/char_dev.c:411 do_dentry_open+0x59d/0x12b0 fs/open.c:947 vfs_open+0x82/0x390 fs/open.c:1052 do_open fs/namei.c:4700 [inline] path_openat+0x2345/0x3420 fs/namei.c:4863 do_file_open+0x207/0x460 fs/namei.c:4892 do_sys_openat2+0xd1/0x1d0 fs/open.c:1368 do_sys_open fs/open.c:1374 [inline] __do_sys_openat fs/open.c:1390 [inline] __se_sys_openat fs/open.c:1385 [inline] __x64_sys_openat+0x144/0x200 fs/open.c:1385 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x115/0x690 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fc6d687594d Code: ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 b0 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007fc6d5295008 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000101 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fc6d6b06180 RCX: 00007fc6d687594d RDX: 0000000000022501 RSI: 0000200000000000 RDI: ffffffffffffff9c RBP: 00007fc6d691c303 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007fc6d6b06218 R14: 00007fc6d6b06180 R15: 00007ffd9451d760 </TASK> Allocated by task 2567 on cpu 1 at 163.593900s: kasan_save_stack+0x24/0x50 mm/kasan/common.c:57 kasan_save_track+0x17/0x60 mm/kasan/common.c:78 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:398 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0xaa/0xb0 mm/kasan/common.c:415 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:263 [inline] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:5334 [inline] __kmalloc_noprof+0x304/0x7c0 mm/slub.c:5359 _kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:992 [inline] nvif_vmm_ctor+0x3c0/0x7e0 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvif/vmm.c:237 nouveau_vmm_init+0x40/0x90 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_vmm.c:134 nouveau_cli_init+0x7b9/0 ---truncated---

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-98515 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack needs to be approached locally. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 10/18/2026).

Upgrading to version 5.10.271, 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158, 6.12.112, 6.18.55, 7.2.9 or 7.3-rc5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 375901ac0f286e81be00a4126e57d488cb401884/bf542ecd4f60d4689818d194e7ca74772fe0f8b5/f09f4a536935b15539f2de9fe775a2641202be90/279e5ac137370e274a09dd552547ae6bddd0d4d5/109a8d2d5b7d2719ebe09df3f9241023900b3846/872a5473c02a26c955be44d52b7ab2f8ea70a2cf/97077ac87afe9e91ec074ef0be64454e7ccbf344 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.270
• 5.15.221
• 6.1.188
• 6.6.157
• 6.12.111
• 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
• 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/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
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CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 8.2
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 7.8

VulDB Base Score: 8.2
VulDB Temp Score: 7.8
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: Double free
CWE: CWE-415 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

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 5.10.271/5.15.222/6.1.189/6.6.158/6.12.112/6.18.55/7.2.9/7.3-rc5
Patch: 375901ac0f286e81be00a4126e57d488cb401884/bf542ecd4f60d4689818d194e7ca74772fe0f8b5/f09f4a536935b15539f2de9fe775a2641202be90/279e5ac137370e274a09dd552547ae6bddd0d4d5/109a8d2d5b7d2719ebe09df3f9241023900b3846/872a5473c02a26c955be44d52b7ab2f8ea70a2cf/97077ac87afe9e91ec074ef0be64454e7ccbf344

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-2026-98515 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-98515
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-422212

Entryinfo

Created: 10/18/2026 21:04
Changes: 10/18/2026 21:04 (60)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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