CVE-2026-98495 net: arp: terminate device name before lookup
A local attacker can trigger an out-of-bounds read in the Linux kernel ARP handler, potentially disclosing sensitive stack memory.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-98495?
CVE-2026-98495 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 18 Oct 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: arp: terminate device name before lookup
The ARP ioctl copies a user-provided struct arpreq into a stack object. Its arp_dev field may contain IFNAMSIZ bytes without a NUL terminator.
Such input is passed to dev_get_by_name_rcu() or __dev_get_by_name(), where strcmp() can read past the end of the stack object when a matching alternative interface name exists.
Terminate the field before the lookup to prevent the out-of-bounds read.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98495?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98495?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-98495 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98495 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-109392, BELL-CVE-2026-98495, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98495, GHSA-qjmq-cw92-j553, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98495.