CVE-2026-98515

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Nouveau graphics driver. This vulnerability allows a local attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by crashing the system or potentially escalate privileges. During device initialization failures, the driver's error-handling path executes redundant cleanup routines that release already-freed memory. This improper resource cleanup causes a double-free condition, leading to kernel memory corruption.

This vulnerability is rated as having a Moderate impact because exploitation requires local access on systems equipped with NVIDIA graphics hardware actively using the Nouveau driver. In typical enterprise and cloud deployments, these graphical drivers are either absent or uninitialized, substantially reducing the attack surface. Furthermore, the issue only triggers during failure handling within device open routines, making system destabilization through a kernel panic the primary outcome.

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.