# CVE-2026-98601: Bluetooth: btintel_pcie: validate device-supplied DMA indices

> A malicious Bluetooth PCIe device can trigger out-of-bounds memory access or infinite loops in the Linux kernel driver, potentially leading to code execution or system crash.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **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:** BELL-CVE-2026-98601, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98601, GHSA-f3q9-4q8h-j7xp, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98601

## What is CVE-2026-98601?

CVE-2026-98601 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:

Bluetooth: btintel_pcie: validate device-supplied DMA indices

In btintel_pcie_msix_rx_handle(), the driver processes RX completion
descriptors (urbd1) written by the PCIe device into DMA-coherent memory.
urbd1->frbd_tag (a 16-bit field fully controlled by the device firmware
via DMA) is used directly as an array index into rxq->bufs[] without any
bounds check. rxq->bufs[] has only BTINTEL_PCIE_RX_DESCS_COUNT (64)
entries, while frbd_tag can be any value 0-65535. A malicious or
malfunctioning device can write an out-of-range frbd_tag, causing the
driver to dereference an out-of-bounds data_buf pointer.

Additionally, cr_hia is read from a DMA-shared index array also writable
by the device; if the device sets cr_hia >= rxq->count, the while-loop
never terminates because cr_tia is wrapped via modulo rxq->count and can
never equal an out-of-range cr_hia.

Add bounds validation for cr_hia and frbd_tag in the RX path, and cr_hia
in the TX path. Log invalid values with bt_dev_err before returning.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98601?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98601?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98601 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98601 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98601 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98601 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-2026-98601 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-2026-98601/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98601/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98601
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98601
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98601

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98601/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.