[ CVE-2026-98771 · Published 18 Oct 2026 ]
Vulnerability in Linux
[ Description ]Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usb: storage: sierra_ms: reject short SWoC info transfers sierra_get_swoc_info() requests sizeof(struct swoc_info) (60) bytes from the device via usb_control_msg(), but its callers only treat a negative return value as failure. A device that answers the vendor-specific GetSwocInfo request with a short IN transfer is therefore accepted, leaving the tail of the freshly allocated (kmalloc(), non-zeroing) swoc_info buffer uninitialized. truinst_show() subsequently prints swocInfo->rev, swocInfo->LinuxSKU and swocInfo->LinuxVer from that buffer into the world-readable (0444) "truinst" sysfs attribute. An emulated/malicious USB device (VID 0x1199, PID 0x0fff) can exploit this to disclose up to 5 bytes of stale kernel heap memory (kmalloc-64) to unprivileged userspace, once per sysfs read, indefinitely. On kernels built without init_on_alloc this leaks recently freed heap contents. Only accept the transfer when the full structure was received. sierra_ms_init() already retries failed queries, so well-behaved devices are unaffected.
[ Fixes ]Fixes and patches
No fix or interim patch is linked from our sources yet. Check the vendor references below and limit exposure of affected systems until a fix is available.
[ Advisories ]Government CERT advisories
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BSI CERT-BundWID-SEC-2026-4019
Linux Kernel: Multiple vulnerabilities Translated from German
[ References ]References
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/4faaad69f18332246bbd4ca41718beb2a305bb72
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/8a0200d14acd9db388b85cd016e68a4e60d900ec
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/c85e8331d298b8f1dee8fe63718e76435cec7133
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/db9d3be156baca6ef80ae5d93acfeb85c61a74dd
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/e2d62928f2666a2964a23b1d39e6e762f0628d7b