Bug 2546542 (CVE-2026-98201)

Summary:	CVE-2026-98201 kernel: Input: zero ff_effect before compat copy in input_ff_effect_from_user
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified	CC:	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
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's input subsystem. When handling 32-bit compatibility requests for force feedback input effects, the kernel fails to properly initialize memory buffers before copying data from user space. A local user can exploit this vulnerability to read uninitialized kernel stack data, leading to information disclosure of potentially sensitive system memory.	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-06 09:41:45 UTC

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

Input: zero ff_effect before compat copy in input_ff_effect_from_user

In the compat path input_ff_effect_from_user() aliases the caller's
native struct ff_effect with the smaller struct ff_effect_compat and
copies only the compat sized prefix:

	compat_effect = (struct ff_effect_compat *)effect;

	if (copy_from_user(compat_effect, buffer,
			   sizeof(struct ff_effect_compat)))

The tail of the native structure is never written. Callers pass an
uninitialized on-stack object, for example evdev_do_ioctl() for
EVIOCSFF, so those bytes keep their previous stack contents.
input_ff_upload() then stores the full native structure in
ff->effects[id], from where a uinput based force feedback daemon can
read it back via UI_BEGIN_FF_UPLOAD, disclosing kernel stack memory to
userspace.

Zero the effect before the compat copy.

Comment 1 Mauro Matteo Cascella 2026-10-09 07:34:57 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/security/vulns.git/plain/cve/published/2026/CVE-2026-98201.mbox