CVE-2026-98693 thunderbolt: Hold a router reference for each allocated HopID
A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel Thunderbolt driver allows local attackers to cause a denial of service by triggering a race condition during device unbinding.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-98693?
CVE-2026-98693 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:
thunderbolt: Hold a router reference for each allocated HopID
tb_stop() drops the reference to all DP tunnels but does not deactivate them, thus nothing cancels a dprx_work still in flight (which holds its own tunnel reference) and the tunnel can outlive tb_switch_remove(). The HopID releases in tb_path_free() then operate on freed IDAs and trigger warnings like
ida_free called for id=8 which is not allocated.
This can be triggered by unbinding the driver while a DP tunnel is still waiting for the DPRX capabilities read to finish. On the Apple NHI unplugging the cable runs into just that reliably because the read can never finish right now and because the unplug powers down the entire USB4 complex and removes the NHI device.
Take a router reference whenever an input or output HopID is allocated and drop it again after the HopID is released. This keeps the ports and their HopID IDAs alive for as long as they are used.
The KUnit tests allocate routers without ever registering their devices so initialize the embedded struct device there as well and drop its initial reference when the test is finished.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98693?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98693?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2026-98693 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98693 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-98693, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98693, GHSA-4h8h-x3h6-2f57, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98693.