NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting bpftool package, versions *


Severity

Recommended
medium

Based on CentOS security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.18% (8th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-CENTOS7-BPFTOOL-21103320
  • published16 Oct 2026
  • disclosed6 Oct 2026

Introduced: 6 Oct 2026

NewCVE-2026-98314  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-476  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

There is no fixed version for Centos:7 bpftool.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream bpftool package and not the bpftool package as distributed by Centos. See How to fix? for Centos:7 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

ALSA: pcm: set timer->private_data before registering the PCM timer

snd_pcm_timer_init() calls snd_device_register() to link the new struct snd_timer into the global timer list while it still carries hw.c_resolution = snd_pcm_timer_resolution (and hw.start/hw.stop), and only afterwards sets timer->private_data = substream.

Once the timer is on the list under register_mutex, a concurrent reader can already reach it through the same mutex and invoke these callbacks. /proc/asound/timers does this via c_resolution(), and snd_timer_open()+snd_timer_start() reach start()/stop() the same way. All three dereference timer->private_data, which for this brief window is NULL, giving a NULL-pointer dereference:

substream = timer->private_data; return substream->runtime ? ... // substream is NULL

Move the private_data/private_free assignment before snd_device_register() so the timer is never visible on the list without its private_data set. On the snd_device_register() failure path, private_free() (snd_pcm_timer_free()) can now run, but it only does substream->timer = NULL, which is already NULL at that point since substream->timer is set to the new timer just once, after a successful registration -- so the failure path stays safe.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1