VulnerabilityPublished 18 Oct 2026Updated 21 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-98505: Linux kernel · mm/damon/vaddr: avoid hw-driven pte updates during damon_hugetlb_mkold()

Affects Linux kernelSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · fixed in e59cb7eda7c06334a0faf5aa44adb6acf2a1287a : update Linux kernel when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 20:24 UTC

Severity

Medium

Rated Medium by Threat Radar's AI analysis · CVSS not yet scored by NVD

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 9% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in e59cb7eda7c06334a0faf5aa44adb6acf2a1287a, 00457981327c80bcc56e07d4714fe189337a19fa, 39c0ceedd54557bdc1542de08d22b2ed33e534e4 +2

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 18 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade to a fixed release listed under Affected software.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 49f4203aae06ba9d67b500c90339b262b0a52637, < e59cb7eda7c06334a0faf5aa44adb6acf2a1287a	Fixed in e59cb7eda7c06334a0faf5aa44adb6acf2a1287a
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 49f4203aae06ba9d67b500c90339b262b0a52637, < 00457981327c80bcc56e07d4714fe189337a19fa	Fixed in 00457981327c80bcc56e07d4714fe189337a19fa
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 49f4203aae06ba9d67b500c90339b262b0a52637, < 39c0ceedd54557bdc1542de08d22b2ed33e534e4	Fixed in 39c0ceedd54557bdc1542de08d22b2ed33e534e4
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 49f4203aae06ba9d67b500c90339b262b0a52637, < 7ed1062d154ec2401f2c894fd6858598bb1160b6	Fixed in 7ed1062d154ec2401f2c894fd6858598bb1160b6
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 49f4203aae06ba9d67b500c90339b262b0a52637, < 6e74ffc9ecf6ec24eee117150da78a1102be74c5	Fixed in 6e74ffc9ecf6ec24eee117150da78a1102be74c5
LinuxLinux	Affected =5.17	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

A fix is available and has been applied in specific Linux kernel commits identified by their hashes. Users and administrators should update to a Linux kernel version that includes these fixes to resolve the issue. No additional mitigation actions are indicated or required.

Description

CVE-2026-98505 is a vulnerability in the Linux kernel's memory management subsystem related to huge page table entries. The flaw involves a race condition where hardware-driven updates to page table entries can be lost during the damon_hugetlb_mkold() function execution. This can cause hardware-updated dirty bits to be lost, though no critical issues are expected due to the nature of hugetlbfs. The vulnerability has been fixed in specific Linux kernel commits.

Impact

The impact is limited because hugetlbfs is an in-memory filesystem and huge pages cannot be reclaimed, so no critical system compromise or data loss is expected. However, the loss of hardware-updated dirty bits could cause inconsistencies in page state tracking, potentially affecting memory management accuracy. No known exploits in the wild have been reported.

Summary

The vulnerability in the Linux kernel affects the damon_hugetlb_mkold() function, which reads and modifies huge page table entries (PTEs). The function unsets the accessed bit in a local copy of the PTE and writes it back. If hardware updates the same PTE concurrently, those updates (such as dirty bits) may be lost. The fix involves using huge_ptep_get_and_clear() to atomically clear the PTE when reading it, preventing parallel hardware updates from being lost. This triggers a page fault if hardware writes occur after clearing, which is then properly handled with synchronization. Since hugetlbfs pages are in-memory and not reclaimable, the impact is limited, but the bug is considered serious and has been resolved in multiple kernel commits.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Oct 2026, 20:24 UTC

Technical details

References

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