CVE-2026-98838

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's virtual terminal subsystem. When handling screen updates for background consoles, the kernel fails to properly verify that a console is active before redrawing it with modified font dimensions. A local attacker can exploit this issue by altering font settings and issuing control sequences to an inactive console, triggering an out-of-bounds memory read against an unresized buffer. This can lead to a system crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS), or potentially expose sensitive kernel memory.

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.