Vulnerabilities

Vulnerability · CVE-2026-98521

CVE-2026-98521: drm/i915: fix incorrect RCU teardown order

Published Oct 18, 2026 · catalog updated Oct 18, 2026 · Linux Linux

Open the advisory

Exploitation likelihood is not on this record for CVE-2026-98521. A missing EPSS score is not a low risk. Compare Linux Linux with the linked advisory before you change production.

Gaps on this record

  • No version range is stored. A customer cannot check an installed version against this record.
  • No vendor fix or required action is stored. Compare the linked advisory before you change production.
  • EPSS is missing. A missing score is not a low risk.
Severity
Unknown—
Known exploitation
Not in CISA/VulnCheck KEV
EPSS
Awaiting synchronization with FIRST
Remediation
Not established
Affected products
linux kernel · vendor Linux Linux

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: fix incorrect RCU teardown order i915_gem_busy_ioctl uses dma_resv_for_each_fence_unlocked() to iterate over the fences in an GEM object without holding a reference but only the RCU read side lock. What can happen here is that the GEM object is destroyed concurrently while i915_gem_busy_ioctl is still running. This won't free the GEM objects memory, but still drops all the dma_fence references. Now when dma_resv_for_each_fence_unlocked() sees a destroyed dma_fence it assumes that a new fence list was installed and re-starts the loop. But in the case of a destroyed GEM object a new fence list is never installed, only the old one freed and therefore the iteration never finishes resulting in an endless loop. The solution is to drop the fence references only after the RCU grace period. The fixes tag is not necessary the patch introducing the problem, but the one making it so worse that we need to address it. This problem was pointed out by Sashiko-bot. (cherry picked from commit 5113479556025093bf8133bb2dcaa33be2d50921)

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  • linux kernelversion unspecified
  • vendor Linux Linuxversion unspecified

How to fix CVE-2026-98521

What to do

Three questions, each answered from this record only. Confirm the vendor advisory before you patch.

Should you patch?

Exploitation likelihood is not on this record for CVE-2026-98521. A missing EPSS score is not a low risk. Compare Linux Linux with the linked advisory before you change production.

Which versions are affected?

Affected version ranges are not on this record. Compare the installed version with the linked vendor advisory before you change production.

What should an analyst verify?

No weakness class is stored. EPSS is not on this record yet. There is no CISA KEV listing. No Exploit-DB or Metasploit reference is linked. Use the source links for the original advisory.

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. Oct 18, 2026 · Linux Kernel CVE

    Detected

    From: Greg Kroah-Hartman Description =========== In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: fix incorrect RCU teardown order i915_gem_busy_ioctl uses dma_resv_for_each_fence_unlocked() to iterate over the fences in an GEM object without holding a reference but only the RCU read side lock. What can happen here is that the GEM object is destroyed concurrently while

  2. Oct 18, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Updated

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: fix incorrect RCU teardown order i915_gem_busy_ioctl uses dma_resv_for_each_fence_unlocked() to iterate over the fences in an GEM object without holding a reference but only the RCU read side lock. What can happen here is that the GEM object is destroyed concurrently while i915_gem_busy_ioctl is still running. This won't

Sources

  • CVE.orgVulnerability recordCVE-2026-98521

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: fix incorrect RCU teardown order i915_gem_busy_ioctl uses dma_resv_for_each_fence_unlocked() to iterate over the fences in an GEM object without holding a reference but only the RCU read side lock. What

    cve.org
  • Linux Kernel CVEVendor advisoryCVE-2026-98521

    From: Greg Kroah-Hartman Description =========== In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: fix incorrect RCU teardown order i915_gem_busy_ioctl uses dma_resv_for_each_fence_unlocked() to iterate over the fences in an GEM object without holding

    git.kernel.org
  • NIST NVDVulnerability recordCVE-2026-98521

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: fix incorrect RCU teardown order i915_gem_busy_ioctl uses dma_resv_for_each_fence_unlocked() to iterate over the fences in an GEM object without holding a reference but only the RCU read side lock. W

    nvd.nist.gov

References

Freshness

Last verified in this catalog Oct 18, 2026. Significant claims (KEV, EPSS, CVSS, affected ranges) come from the source rows above — open the original publisher for the authoritative advisory.