# CVE-2026-98645: HID: winwing: fix use-after-free in force feedback teardown

> A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's winwing HID driver allows local attackers to cause system crashes or potentially execute code via device unbinding or hot-unplugging.

- **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:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98645, GHSA-m8vm-rrf4-qcx2, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98645

## What is CVE-2026-98645?

CVE-2026-98645 is an use after free 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:

HID: winwing: fix use-after-free in force feedback teardown

winwing_init_ff() passes the driver's private data, allocated with
devm_kzalloc() in winwing_probe(), as the effect context to
input_ff_create_memless(). The memoryless force-feedback core takes
ownership of that pointer and frees it with kfree() from
input_ff_destroy() (ml_ff_destroy()) when the input device is
destroyed.

Freeing a devm-managed allocation with kfree() is an invalid free, and
the same object is then released again by devres when the HID device is
torn down, a double free. As the allocation also embeds the LED class
devices, their timers and work item live on freed memory and the slab
gets corrupted. This triggers on unbind, rmmod, hot-unplug and on system
suspend, where the firmware cache walks the now-corrupt devres list.
KASAN reports:

  BUG: KASAN: invalid-free in input_ff_destroy
  Allocated by task N:
    winwing_probe

Pass NULL as the memless context instead and fetch the driver data from
the input device in winwing_play_effect(): the HID core already stores
the hid_device as the input device's drvdata. The force-feedback core
then owns nothing that it must not free.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98645?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98645?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98645 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98645 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98645 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98645 is an use after free 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-2026-98645 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-2026-98645/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98645/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98645
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98645
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98645

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98645/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.