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Linux Kernel EUVDEUVD-2026-86927

| CVE-2026-98097 MEDIUM
2026-09-25 Linux GHSA-3hxh-h963-cm8c
5.3
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Join TIPC cluster as link peer
  2. Exploit
    Induce link RESET/ACTIVATE exchange
  3. Execution
    Receive if_name buffer with uninitialized padding
  4. Impact
    Recover leaked kernel skb memory bytes

Vulnerability Assessment

Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires the target to have the TIPC (Transparent Inter-Process Communication) subsystem enabled and actively establishing links - the leak occurs specifically in the RESET/ACTIVATE link-protocol messages, where the interface name was written with strcpy() into a fixed TIPC_MAX_IF_NAME buffer, leaving trailing bytes populated with uninitialized skb memory. The attacker must be positioned to receive these TIPC link-protocol messages, i.e. act as or observe a TIPC peer on the cluster, which in practice means adjacency to the TIPC network rather than arbitrary internet reach. Limiting factors: TIPC is not enabled by default on most Linux installations and is used mainly in clustered/telecom environments; the disclosure is confined to a small, non-controllable set of padding bytes (C:L only), with no integrity or availability impact.

Impact

This is a genuinely low-priority issue despite the network attack vector. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, base 5.3) reflects an unauthenticated, remotely reachable information disclosure with only limited (C:L) confidentiality impact and no integrity or availability effect. All corroborating signals point the same direction and do not conflict: EPSS is 0.18% (7th percentile), there is no CISA KEV listing (not actively exploited), and no public exploit or PoC is present - the only linked git.kernel.org references are the upstream fix commits, not exploit code. The vuln.today Decision label is 'this_month', consistent with a real-but-non-urgent fix. The one nuance to flag: although AV:N is defensible, TIPC is a clustering protocol typically run on a trusted cluster/adjacent L2 network rather than the open internet, and - critically - the flaw is only reachable when the TIPC subsystem is actually configured and links are being established, which is uncommon in general-purpose Linux deployments. The disclosure itself is small (uninitialized padding bytes from an skb within a TIPC_MAX_IF_NAME buffer leaked to a remote peer), so this is a high-reach product with a low-reach, low-impact bug rather than a high-CVSS-but-overstated emergency.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker participating as a peer in a TIPC network (or able to inject TIPC link-protocol traffic onto the cluster segment) observes the RESET/ACTIVATE link-protocol messages a vulnerable node sends during link establishment. Because the interface name was copied with strcpy() instead of a fixed-length memcpy(), the bytes following the name within the fixed TIPC_MAX_IF_NAME buffer contain leftover uninitialized skb memory, which the attacker collects to recover fragments of kernel memory. No public exploit or PoC has been identified at time of analysis, and the small, non-deterministic nature of the leak limits practical value.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 28, 2026

Linux kernel TIPC link-management code can leak uninitialized kernel memory to a remote peer because the interface name was copied with strcpy() into a fixed TIPC_MAX_IF_NAME buffer inside RESET/ACTIVATE link-protocol messages, leaving the trailing bytes of that field filled with whatever was previously in the skb. Only systems running the TIPC (Transparent Inter-Process Communication) subsystem and actively establishing links are exposed, and the attacker must be positioned as (or beside) a TIPC peer on the cluster network; the impact is limited to disclosure of a small, non-controllable set of padding bytes (CVSS 3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, 5.3). EPSS is 0.18% (7th percentile), the issue is not in CISA KEV, and no public exploit has been identified at time of analysis; vendor patches are available in the listed stable branches.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: 6.12.111, 6.18.53, 7.2.7 and 7.3-rc2 (stable commits bee1459e57f2e0bd240c62f35c0a284291e27971, 81c600c26302a27852ed8b19c5f2f647ea3555c9, 48033a89356b8ae21a94db70c79bb6fcc91a23c2 and 4ab2977323d5f068a872126f7818d1aeb9e9ca0d, see https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/48033a89356b8ae21a94db70c79bb6fcc91a23c2); apply the update for whichever of those branches the system tracks. Where the kernel cannot be updated immediately, the practical compensating control is to stop loading TIPC on hosts that do not need it - blacklist the module (e.g. install tipc /bin/false or modprobe.blacklist=tipc) so the RESET/ACTIVATE link code path is never reachable; the trade-off is that any cluster application relying on TIPC service addressing will stop working. If TIPC must stay enabled, confine it to a dedicated, trusted cluster segment (separate VLAN/interface and firewall rules so only known peers can reach the TIPC link endpoints) and avoid running it over untrusted or shared network paths - this reduces who can receive the link messages but does not remove the leak while hosts remain unpatched, so updating is the complete fix.

Affected VersionsENISA

Linux e74a386d70c793ef44678b44b021c99094b28c47 <bee1459e57f2e0bd240c62f35c0a284291e27971
Linux patch: 0
Linux e74a386d70c793ef44678b44b021c99094b28c47 <81c600c26302a27852ed8b19c5f2f647ea3555c9
Linux e74a386d70c793ef44678b44b021c99094b28c47 <48033a89356b8ae21a94db70c79bb6fcc91a23c2
Linux patch: 6.12.111
Linux 4.6
Linux patch: 7.3-rc2
Linux patch: 6.18.53
Linux e74a386d70c793ef44678b44b021c99094b28c47 <4ab2977323d5f068a872126f7818d1aeb9e9ca0d
Linux patch: 7.2.7

Affected Packages

euvd linux no fix

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

TIPC is a Linux-only, cluster/telecom-oriented transport that lets nodes in a cluster address each other by service name rather than by IP address; it speaks its own link protocol between directly connected peers. The link layer keeps a per-link interface name in l->if_name[], a fixed-size buffer of TIPC_MAX_IF_NAME bytes that is zero-padded. When the kernel built RESET and ACTIVATE link messages it used strcpy(), which stops at the first NUL and therefore only wrote the meaningful prefix of the name, leaving the remainder of the fixed-length field in the outgoing skb untouched - i.e. carrying residual (uninitialized) skb contents rather than zero padding. The upstream fix replaces that copy with memcpy() from the zero-padded l->if_name[] buffer so the pad bytes are deterministic, and additionally converts two other strcpy() call sites in the same area to strscpy(). The root cause is a use of uninitialized/stale buffer contents on the transmit path (an information-disclosure class issue); no CWE identifier was supplied in the source data, and the exact triggering sequence beyond this copy path is not described in the available sources. The affected component has existed since at least the introduction commit e74a386d70c793ef44678b44b021c99094b28c47 (EUVD lists Linux 4.6 among the affected versions).

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 5.3 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
vuln.today AI 5.3 MEDIUM

TIPC link messages are received without authentication (PR:N) and the leak triggers automatically during link setup (AC:L, UI:N); impact is a small memory disclosure only, so C:L, I:N, A:N.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None

Lifecycle Timeline

4
CVSS changed
Oct 28, 2026 - 19:07 NVD
5.3 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
Sep 25, 2026 - 11:02 EUVD
CVE Published
Sep 25, 2026 - 10:24 nvd
MEDIUM 5.3
CVE Published
Sep 25, 2026 - 10:24 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionNVD

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tipc: Dont send random pad bytes in RESET/ACTIVATE messages

The interface name is passed in a fixed length (TIPC_MAX_IF_NAME) buffer. Replace the strcpy(data, l->if_name) with memcpy() so that the pad bytes are actually written (l->if_name[] is zero padded) rather than sending random bytes from the skb to the remote system.

Replace two other strcpy() with strscpy().

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 93% exploitable
Prevalence
Ubiquitous
Linux kernel runs almost everywhere, though the TIPC module is rarely loaded
Data Quality
4 sources
Confidence: Medium

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
Yes
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

26
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +26
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

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