Improper Update of Reference Count Affecting kernel-modules-internal package, versions *


Severity

Recommended
low

Based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.18% (8th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-RHEL8-KERNELMODULESINTERNAL-21031893
  • published16 Oct 2026
  • disclosed6 Oct 2026

Introduced: 6 Oct 2026

NewCVE-2026-98344  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-911  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

There is no fixed version for RHEL:8 kernel-modules-internal.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-modules-internal package and not the kernel-modules-internal package as distributed by RHEL. See How to fix? for RHEL:8 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

dmaengine: Fix device kref underflow in dma_chan_put()

dma_chan_get() takes chan->device->ref only on the slow path:

/* no kref on fast path */
if (chan->client_count) {
    __module_get(owner);
    chan->client_count++;
    return 0;
}
if (!try_module_get(owner))
    return -ENODEV;
if (!dma_device_get(chan->device)) { // calls kref_get_unless_zero()

dma_chan_put() drops the ref unconditionally, so every fast-path get/put pair drops one extra device reference.

The bug fires when two conditions hold together: a non-private provider has a persistent client holding chan->client_count > 0 and another client cycles dmaengine_get()/dmaengine_put(). When the kref hits zero, the subsequent dma_find_channel() returns NULL even though the provider module is still loaded.

Fix this by dropping device->ref only on the last put, matching the single slow-path get.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1