CVE-2026-98445

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's XFS file system. A local user could cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by triggering an online file system repair under low-memory conditions. When a memory allocation failure occurs during repair block reservation, the kernel cannot cleanly recover from the error, resulting in storage block leaks and an unexpected file system shutdown.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate severity for Red Hat Enterprise Linux because triggering the condition requires high local privileges such as CAP_SYS_ADMIN and concurrent memory exhaustion, confining the impact to a denial of service. While XFS is the standard default filesystem across enterprise installations, the affected online repair functionality is invoked only during specific administrative maintenance tasks rather than normal file operations. Under extreme memory pressure during an active repair operation, a failed internal reservation forces the filesystem into an unrecoverable state and shuts it down, but does not allow privilege escalation or unauthorized data access.

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.