Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-98442 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-98442 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-98442?
- Informational severity, published 18 October 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Linux multiple versions prior to fix.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-98442?
- A patch was published on 2026-10-03. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-98442 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access, in an operating system.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-98442?
- Check whether you run Linux at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
A use-after-free exists in net/sched/act_ct.c where a raw pointer to the extensions area is wired into the expectations list before all extensions are added. If the connection is not yet confirmed, subsequent calls to *_ext_add() can reallocate the extension space, leaving an invalid pointer in the expectations list. The fix reorders operations to call nf_ct_helper() after all extensions have been added, eliminating the reallocation window.
Affected products
- Linux Linux multiple versions prior to fix
Timeline
- 2026-09-29: disclosed
- 2026-10-03: patched
- 2026-10-18: advisory