# CVE-2026-98514: drm/nouveau: Fix gem reference leak in validate_init()

> A local attacker can trigger a memory leak in the nouveau driver, leading to resource exhaustion and denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-108852, BELL-CVE-2026-98514, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98514, GHSA-g33v-35j5-pxgw, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98514

## What is CVE-2026-98514?

CVE-2026-98514 is a memory corruption 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:

drm/nouveau: Fix gem reference leak in validate_init()

On the ttm_bo_reserve() failure and "vma not found" error paths, the
loop breaks without adding the looked-up object to any validate list,
so the reference taken by drm_gem_object_lookup() is never released;
validate_fini() only walks the spliced lists.  Drop the reference
before breaking out on both paths.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98514?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98514?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98514 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98514 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98514 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98514 is a memory corruption 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98514 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98514/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98514/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98514
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98514
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98514

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98514/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.