Cloudanix VulnDB

CVE-2026-98515

None

CVSS

—

EPSS

0.2%

Published

Oct 18, 2026

CISA due date

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Cloudanix analysis

Schedule a fix SSVC: Track

A bug in the graphics driver for certain NVIDIA cards can crash the whole computer when a program tries to open the graphics device in an unusual way.

Exploitation
Local Privilege
Attacker needs
Local User
Complexity
Moderate
Impact
Privilege Gain
Component
OS kernel
Class
Memory Corruption
Remediation
Upgrade
Effort
Medium
Patch risk
Low

What it actually does

Double-free of vmm->page pointer inside nvif_vmm_dtor when nouveau_cli_fini is invoked twice from error paths in nouveau_cli_init and nouveau_drm_open.

Why it matters to the business

Kernel memory corruption or panic on systems using the Nouveau driver, causing system crashes and loss of GPU functionality until patched.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker opens a DRM device node triggering the nouveau_drm_open error path; this causes nouveau_cli_fini to be called twice, each time invoking nvif_vmm_dtor which unconditionally kfree's the same pointer without clearing it, resulting in a double-free.

How to fix it

Apply the upstream kernel patch that clears vmm->page after the first free in nvif_vmm_dtor or nouveau_vmm_fini; rebuild and deploy the fixed kernel on all affected systems.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm the fix by inspecting nvif_vmm_dtor and nouveau_vmm_fini for a NULL assignment after kfree, or verify the kernel build contains the commit resolving the double-free in nvif_vmm_dtor.

Typical attack path

  1. Open /dev/dri/card* or equivalent DRM device
  2. Trigger failure in nouveau_cli_init inside nouveau_drm_open
  3. nouveau_drm_open cleanup path calls nouveau_cli_fini a second time
  4. nouveau_vmm_fini calls nvif_vmm_dtor twice
  5. Second kfree on uncleared pointer triggers double-free

How to detect it

Search kernel logs and KASAN reports for 'BUG: KASAN: double-free in nvif_vmm_dtor' or stack traces containing nouveau_cli_fini, nouveau_vmm_fini, and nvif_vmm_dtor.

  • BUG: KASAN: double-free in nvif_vmm_dtor
  • nvif_vmm_dtor+0x31/0x50
  • nouveau_vmm_fini+0x16/0x50
  • nouveau_cli_fini+0x10e/0x210

What your security team should do

  • Prioritize kernel updates containing the nouveau double-free fix within the next patch cycle
  • Monitor KASAN or kernel bug reports mentioning nvif_vmm_dtor or nouveau_cli_fini
  • Limit unprivileged access to DRM device nodes until systems are updated

The record

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/nouveau: fix double-free in nvif_vmm_dtor On failure, nouveau_cli_init() calls nouveau_cli_fini() to tear the client down. Then, nouveau_drm_open() also enters into its cleanup path and calls nouveau_cli_fini() AGAIN. nouveau_cli_fini() calls nouveau_vmm_fini(): void nouveau_vmm_fini(struct nouveau_vmm *vmm) { nouveau_svmm_fini(&vmm->svmm); nvif_vmm_dtor(&vmm->vmm); vmm->cli = NULL; } Inside nvif_vmm_dtor(), vmm->page is freed unconditionally: void nvif_vmm_dtor(struct nvif_vmm *vmm) { kfree(vmm->page); nvif_object_dtor(&vmm->object); } vmm->page is never cleared after being freed, so the second call of nvif_vmm_dtor() will cause a double-free. Found by fuzzing the nouveau driver with a modified Syzkaller: BUG: KASAN: double-free in nvif_vmm_dtor+0x31/0x50 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvif/vmm.c:194 Free of addr ffff888010fcdc30 by task syz.0.173/2567 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 2567 Comm: syz.0.173 Not tainted 7.2.0 #24 PREEMPT(lazy) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x95/0xe0 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xcb/0x5a0 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report_invalid_free+0xaa/0xd0 mm/kasan/report.c:557 check_slab_allocation+0xe4/0x110 mm/kasan/common.c:235 kasan_slab_pre_free include/linux/kasan.h:199 [inline] slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:2622 [inline] slab_free mm/slub.c:6377 [inline] kfree+0x192/0x590 mm/slub.c:6692 nvif_vmm_dtor+0x31/0x50 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvif/vmm.c:194 nouveau_vmm_fini+0x16/0x50 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_vmm.c:127 nouveau_cli_fini+0x10e/0x210 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_drm.c:225 nouveau_drm_open+0x24e/0x740 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_drm.c:1255 drm_file_alloc+0x5f2/0xad0 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_file.c:176 drm_open_helper+0x1d7/0x4a0 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_file.c:335 drm_open+0x190/0x3d0 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_file.c:388 drm_stub_open+0x1f2/0x460 drivers/gpu/drm/drm_drv.c:1211 chrdev_open+0x21c/0x660 fs/char_dev.c:411 do_dentry_open+0x59d/0x12b0 fs/open.c:947 vfs_open+0x82/0x390 fs/open.c:1052 do_open fs/namei.c:4700 [inline] path_openat+0x2345/0x3420 fs/namei.c:4863 do_file_open+0x207/0x460 fs/namei.c:4892 do_sys_openat2+0xd1/0x1d0 fs/open.c:1368 do_sys_open fs/open.c:1374 [inline] __do_sys_openat fs/open.c:1390 [inline] __se_sys_openat fs/open.c:1385 [inline] __x64_sys_openat+0x144/0x200 fs/open.c:1385 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x115/0x690 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fc6d687594d Code: ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 b0 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007fc6d5295008 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000101 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fc6d6b06180 RCX: 00007fc6d687594d RDX: 0000000000022501 RSI: 0000200000000000 RDI: ffffffffffffff9c RBP: 00007fc6d691c303 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007fc6d6b06218 R14: 00007fc6d6b06180 R15: 00007ffd9451d760 </TASK> Allocated by task 2567 on cpu 1 at 163.593900s: kasan_save_stack+0x24/0x50 mm/kasan/common.c:57 kasan_save_track+0x17/0x60 mm/kasan/common.c:78 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:398 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0xaa/0xb0 mm/kasan/common.c:415 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:263 [inline] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:5334 [inline] __kmalloc_noprof+0x304/0x7c0 mm/slub.c:5359 _kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:992 [inline] nvif_vmm_ctor+0x3c0/0x7e0 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvif/vmm.c:237 nouveau_vmm_init+0x40/0x90 drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau_vmm.c:134 nouveau_cli_init+0x7b9/0 ---truncated---

Affected packages

Ecosystem Package Introduced Fixed