CVE-2026-98276

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. A local attacker can exploit a race condition during concurrent socket operations, such as retrieving timestamps while binding a network socket, because socket flags are modified without proper locking. This issue causes socket memory to be prematurely freed while still referenced by packet processing paths, resulting in a use-after-free condition. Successful exploitation can lead to a system crash and Denial of Service (DoS), or potentially allow privilege escalation.

This vulnerability is rated Moderate in impact for Red Hat products because an attacker must have local user privileges to trigger a precise race condition across concurrent socket operations. Standard deployments permit unprivileged processes to manage their own sockets, but winning the timing window between timestamp queries and address binding is difficult to achieve consistently. While a successful race can result in premature socket deallocation and kernel memory corruption leading to system instability or elevated privileges, the prerequisite for local access and high attack complexity constrains the overall risk.

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.