Improper Update of Reference Count Affecting kernel-rt-debug-devel package, versions *


Severity

Recommended
0.0
low
0
10

Based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.16% (6th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-RHEL10-KERNELRTDEBUGDEVEL-21669067
  • published24 Oct 2026
  • disclosed18 Oct 2026

Introduced: 18 Oct 2026

NewCVE-2026-98851  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-911  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

There is no fixed version for RHEL:10 kernel-rt-debug-devel.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-rt-debug-devel package and not the kernel-rt-debug-devel package as distributed by RHEL. See How to fix? for RHEL:10 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

netfilter: nft_flow_offload: drop flowtable reference on init error path

nft_flow_offload_init() bumps the flowtable use count with nft_use_inc() before calling nf_ct_netns_get(). When the latter fails, the error is returned as-is and the reference is leaked.

The upper layers do not balance it either: nf_tables_newexpr() clears expr->ops when the expression init callback fails, so the nft_expr_more() iteration in nft_rule_expr_deactivate() and nf_tables_rule_destroy() stops right before the failed expression and its ->destroy callback, which would drop the reference, never runs.

Each failed rule addition therefore leaks one flowtable reference and the flowtable can no longer be removed: NFT_MSG_DELFLOWTABLE keeps reporting -EBUSY even though no rule references it.

Save the nf_ct_netns_get() return value and undo the nft_use_inc() when it fails, restoring the inc/dec pairing within nft_flow_offload_init() itself.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1