CVE-2026-98034

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter) verifier. This flaw allows a local user to achieve privilege escalation by submitting a specially crafted eBPF program. Because the verifier fails to properly track register precision when writing to kernel pointers, it prematurely prunes and accepts unsafe execution paths, enabling the program to manipulate kernel memory and gain elevated privileges.

Red Hat rates this vulnerability as Moderate severity because exploitation requires local system access and the ability to load eBPF programs, which is restricted by default on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Under default deployments, unprivileged eBPF program execution is disabled, meaning an attacker must already possess administrative capabilities such as CAP_BPF or CAP_SYS_ADMIN to interact with the vulnerable verifier logic. While invalid state pruning could permit unsafe memory manipulation, the necessity of privileged access or non-default system configurations limits the blast radius for general users.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.