Bug 2541206 (CVE-2026-98099)

Summary: CVE-2026-98099 kernel: ipv6: mcast: use rcu_assign_pointer() for __rcu list updates
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. A local user could exploit a race condition in the IPv6 multicast subsystem to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) or kernel memory corruption. Because internal multicast lists are modified without proper synchronization helpers, concurrent socket operations can race with active reader threads, leaving list pointers in an inconsistent state and causing a system crash.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-25 11:01:51 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ipv6: mcast: use rcu_assign_pointer() for __rcu list updates

Several places in net/ipv6/mcast.c update RCU-protected lists
(np->ipv6_mc_list, idev->mc_list, idev->mc_tomb) using direct pointer
assignments instead of rcu_assign_pointer():

1. In __ipv6_dev_mc_dec(), unlinking a group from idev->mc_list did:
       *map = ma->next;
   without rcu_assign_pointer() while concurrent readers traverse
   idev->mc_list locklessly under rcu_read_lock().
2. In ipv6_sock_mc_drop() and __ipv6_sock_mc_close(), unlinking a group
   from np->ipv6_mc_list directly assigned *lnk = mc_lst->next and
   np->ipv6_mc_list = mc_lst->next without rcu_assign_pointer(), racing
   with lockless readers in inet6_mc_check().
3. In __ipv6_sock_mc_join(), mc_lst->next was initialized to
   np->ipv6_mc_list via raw assignment before publishing mc_lst.
4. In mld_del_delrec() and __ipv6_dev_mc_inc(), __rcu source pointers
   passed into rcu_assign_pointer() lacked explicit dereference helpers.

Fix these by consistently using rcu_assign_pointer() along with
mc_dereference() / sock_dereference().