VulnerabilityPublished 18 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-98506: Linux kernel · mm/hugetlb: do not dissolve gigantic pages without runtime support

Affects Linux kernelSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · fixed in ddc1055b557506a6ea8930dfbd8d1555d6a3f01e : update Linux kernel when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 12:55 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 ddc1055b557506a6ea8930dfbd8d1555d6a3f01e, ccf96a4b8626a001c13c5836d8357f31c57bbd8e, a363c62a653cc8b3e21da9545fa4e028ef50f9c3 +1

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 Linux kernel to ddc1055b557506a6ea8930dfbd8d1555d6a3f01e, ccf96a4b8626a001c13c5836d8357f31c57bbd8e, a363c62a653cc8b3e21da9545fa4e028ef50f9c3 or 443628f755b35bf45044f68b970b65cd531c42fd.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 6eb4e88a6d27022ea8aff424d47a0a5dfc9fcb34, < ddc1055b557506a6ea8930dfbd8d1555d6a3f01e	Fixed in ddc1055b557506a6ea8930dfbd8d1555d6a3f01e
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 6eb4e88a6d27022ea8aff424d47a0a5dfc9fcb34, < ccf96a4b8626a001c13c5836d8357f31c57bbd8e	Fixed in ccf96a4b8626a001c13c5836d8357f31c57bbd8e
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 6eb4e88a6d27022ea8aff424d47a0a5dfc9fcb34, < a363c62a653cc8b3e21da9545fa4e028ef50f9c3	Fixed in a363c62a653cc8b3e21da9545fa4e028ef50f9c3
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 6eb4e88a6d27022ea8aff424d47a0a5dfc9fcb34, < 443628f755b35bf45044f68b970b65cd531c42fd	Fixed in 443628f755b35bf45044f68b970b65cd531c42fd
LinuxLinux	Affected =5.13	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Fixes for this vulnerability are available in the Linux kernel. The issue is resolved in commits identified by hashes ddc1055b557506a6ea8930dfbd8d1555d6a3f01e, ccf96a4b8626a001c13c5836d8357f31c57bbd8e, a363c62a653cc8b3e21da9545fa4e028ef50f9c3, and 443628f755b35bf45044f68b970b65cd531c42fd. Users and administrators should update affected Linux kernel versions to incorporate these fixes. No additional mitigation steps are indicated.

Description

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's huge page memory management subsystem was fixed. The flaw involved improper handling of gigantic huge pages without runtime support, leading to potential corruption of the free list during memory operations. This could occur when certain functions freed a still-listed folio, and a failure in vmemmap restore caused rollback corruption.

Impact

The vulnerability could cause memory corruption in the Linux kernel's huge page management, potentially leading to system instability or crashes. There is no indication of active exploitation in the wild or direct security compromise such as privilege escalation or data leakage from the provided data.

Summary

CVE-2026-98506 addresses a flaw in the Linux kernel's mm/hugetlb subsystem where the function dissolve_free_hugetlb_folio() did not verify if a huge page folio was gigantic without runtime support. While related functions remove_hugetlb_folio() and update_and_free_hugetlb_folio() would silently bail out for such folios, dissolve_free_hugetlb_folio() would proceed to free a folio still listed. This mismatch could lead to corruption of the free list if a vmemmap restore operation failed and add_hugetlb_folio() attempted a rollback. The issue was resolved by ensuring proper checks are performed before dissolving gigantic huge pages without runtime support.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Oct 2026, 11:03 UTC

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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