[CVE-2026-98694][MODERATE 7.0] thunderbolt: Fix KASAN reported use-after-free when request is canceled

[CVE-2026-98694][MODERATE 7.0] thunderbolt: Fix KASAN reported use-after-free when request is canceled

[AL-KERNEL]

CVE: CVE-2026-98694
Priority: MODERATE 7.0
AL-KERNEL base severity: MODERATE
KPANIC flag: YES
Patch: thunderbolt: Fix KASAN reported use-after-free when request is canceled
Commit: 71b3c517e02af2c46ad58d4b3706b7c3cb24936d
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=71b3c517e02af2c46ad58d4b3706b7c3cb24936d
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-98694
Analysis date: Sat, 24 Oct 2026 09:36:41 -0400
ActionableScore: 4
ActionableScore lower bound: unknown
Actionable bucket: Borderline / manual review recommended
Manual review required: YES

Summary:
A connected Thunderbolt/USB4 device can help expose a narrow cancellation race that requeues work on a freed control request, causing a confirmed slab UAF and plausible kernel crash.

======================================================================
ABOUT THIS REPORT
======================================================================

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-98694 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-98694

The original announcement does not normally provide a security severity
estimate, CVSS assessment, or enough information to determine whether the
reported kernel bug represents a practically relevant security issue.

This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. It combines
an autonomous classifier with LLM-assisted technical analysis and a
separate ActionableScore mechanism.

The purpose of this report is to prioritize Linux kernel CVEs before
manual review, identify cases that require prompt investigation, and
support automatic closure of issues that are unlikely to have meaningful
security impact.

Published priority for this report: MODERATE 7.0
Manual review required: YES

A detailed explanation of the methodology and priority rules is included
at the end of this message.

======================================================================
AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT
======================================================================

CVE-2026-98694	MODERATE	https://www.kernelcve.org/list/?q=CVE-2026-98694 CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN MODERATE | AEGIS IMPACT MODERATE_KPANIC AEGIS_AS=4 LEGACY=MODERATE_KPANIC RESULT=SAME (final reconciliation agrees; DECISION: both MODERATE_KPANIC)	Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H';*CWE-416;CWE-362;*CWE-664;Other CVSS 'AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H';BEST CVSS score: '7.5';DESCR 'A race between request completion and tb_cfg_request_cancel can schedule the same work again after the request was removed from the queue and its reference was released. The resulting slab use-after-free is confirmed by KASAN and can cause a kernel crash. Reuse of the freed request may also expose stale flags, ctl, callback, and callback_data fields, creating a plausible but unproven path to control flow or broader memory safety impact. For the CVSS the PR:N value reflects an adjacent attacker using a connected Thunderbolt or USB4 device lacking a host user account, while AC:H reflects the narrow race window between completion and cancellation. The issue is not remotely reachable over an ordinary IP network and requires affected Thunderbolt hardware and control channel activity. Automated impact decision path. The original SimpleNet classifier selected MODERATE. The primary LLM estimated paranoid CVSS 7.5 and the production ActionableScore returned 4 with recommendation Borderline / manual review recommended. The production rules then evaluated CVSS thresholds and ActionableScore thresholds. Recorded rule transitions were CVSS and initial triage stage MODERATE to MODERATE_KPANIC because the CVSS score, vector or bug class threshold rule was applied. The legacy KP specialist produced a review artifact and its decision was processed by the applicable KP rules. The legacy FD or DH downgrade specialist has no review artifact for this run. Exact triggered rule markers were INCREASED_TO_MODERATE7_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS. The independent weaker Aegis shadow evaluated CVSS 2.0 and ActionableScore 4 with primitive class CLASS_B and manual review REQUIRED. Its independently reconciled impact was MODERATE_KPANIC. The shadow agreed with the final production impact and aggregation did not change that impact. The final reported impact is MODERATE_KPANIC.';YES REQUIRES MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Borderline / manual review recommended (with actual score 4)	MAYBE	READ LOCK UAF LINUS TEST  KPANIC INCREASED_TO_MODERATE7_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS	-	-	checked

======================================================================
ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
======================================================================

ActionableScore=4
PrimitiveClass=CLASS_B
RealUAF=YES
HostAdminRequired=NO
NamespaceScopedPrivilege=NO
ImportantCandidate=NO
ManualReview=RECOMMENDED
AutoDowngradeAllowed=YES
RequiresHostUID0=NO
AuthorizationDecisionBypass=NO
ProtectedResourceImpact=NONE
B4PendingReview=NO
B4PendingConfirmed=NO

1. ActionableScore

* Raw base score: 1.
* Conservative score: 4. Real-UAF floor 4 applied: 1 -> 4.
* Raw paranoid score: 1.
* Paranoid score: 4. No additional exploit primitive is sufficiently supported.
* Final recommended bucket: **Borderline / manual review recommended**::

2. Signal breakdown

* +2 Real UAF: request completion can remove the request and drop its final reference, while cancellation queues the same work again; the later worker accesses the freed request.
* +1 Reliable kernel crash/strong DoS: KASAN confirms a slab UAF, making an Oops or kernel crash plausible.
* +1 Firmware/device-mediated external influence: supplied evidence grounds triggering in connected Thunderbolt/USB4 control-channel activity.
* -1 Hard race: stress testing only occasionally hits the narrow completion-versus-cancellation interval.
* -2 Physical hardware/access requirement: the stated attack model requires a connected Thunderbolt/USB4 device, not ordinary network or local software reachability.
* No extra Availability point: it would duplicate the UAF crash.
* No structured-leverage point: stale flags, callback, and callback_data are present, but attacker-controlled reclaim or replacement contents are not shown.
* No C/I, callback hijack, arbitrary write, or LPE is proven.
* NEW52 B5-R does not apply: there is no retry-accumulated heap OOB write or later consumption of OOB-corrupted state.

3. Reachability analysis

The supported actor is an adjacent attacker controlling a physically connected Thunderbolt/USB4 device. No host UID 0, host capability, namespace capability, or prior privileged software setup is shown as necessary. The race is timing-sensitive and was observed under stress, but is confirmed rather than speculative. Ordinary IP-remote and normal local-userspace triggering are not established.

4. Primitive and severity reading

This is a real Class B lifetime violation involving an active structured request, not fixed stale DMA storage. The queued worker and synchronous request path can read the request after its queue-owned reference was released. It is not a repeated-release case: the patch does not show the exact dangling reference receiving a second lifetime/refcount mutation.

The shown effect is UAF detection and plausible host crash. Reclaimed callback-field consumption is a theoretical worst case, not a demonstrated controlled callback primitive. Therefore ImportantCandidate is NO and automatic Moderate downgrade remains permissible, although hardware/race-specific review is recommended.

5. One-sentence report phrase

A connected Thunderbolt/USB4 device can help expose a narrow cancellation race that requeues work on a freed control request, causing a confirmed slab UAF and plausible kernel crash.

6. Manual review advice

MANUAL CHECK RECOMMENDED

Confirm device control over cancellation timing and whether practical heap reuse can reach the stale callback path.

7. Call-site confidence

Call-site confidence: high

======================================================================
UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY
======================================================================

Patch: thunderbolt: Fix KASAN reported use-after-free when request is canceled
Commit: 71b3c517e02af2c46ad58d4b3706b7c3cb24936d
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=71b3c517e02af2c46ad58d4b3706b7c3cb24936d

Commit description:

Alan reported that when doing stress testing sometimes KASAN notices
use-after-free during control channel operation (stripped down keeping
the relevant parts):

 BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in tb_cfg_request_sync+0x240/0x250 [thunderbolt]
 Read of size 24 at addr ffff88811067f290 by task kworker/u40:2/1760
  <TASK>
  tb_cfg_request_sync+0x240/0x250 [thunderbolt]
  tb_cfg_read_raw+0x367/0x510 [thunderbolt]
  tb_cfg_read+0xec/0x240 [thunderbolt]
  tb_port_get_link_generation+0x258/0x420 [thunderbolt]
  tb_usb3_consumed_bandwidth+0x1c1/0x2c0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_tunnel_consumed_bandwidth+0xfd/0x910 [thunderbolt]
  tb_available_bandwidth+0x5f2/0xeb0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_recalc_estimated_bandwidth+0x2a0/0x1bc0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_handle_dp_bandwidth_request+0x1897/0x5e20 [thunderbolt]
  process_one_work+0x675/0x1230
  worker_thread+0x5e6/0xf70
  kthread+0x365/0x470
  ret_from_fork+0x54d/0x710
  ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
  </TASK>

 Allocated by task 1760:
  __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x1ee/0x550
  tb_cfg_read_raw+0x1d3/0x510 [thunderbolt]
  tb_cfg_read+0xec/0x240 [thunderbolt]
  tb_port_get_link_generation+0x258/0x420 [thunderbolt]
  tb_usb3_consumed_bandwidth+0x1c1/0x2c0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_tunnel_consumed_bandwidth+0xfd/0x910 [thunderbolt]
  tb_available_bandwidth+0x5f2/0xeb0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_recalc_estimated_bandwidth+0x2a0/0x1bc0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_handle_dp_bandwidth_request+0x1897/0x5e20 [thunderbolt]
  process_one_work+0x675/0x1230
  worker_thread+0x5e6/0xf70
  kthread+0x365/0x470
  ret_from_fork+0x54d/0x710
  ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

 Freed by task 926:
  kfree+0x18f/0x4a0
  tb_cfg_request_put+0xb7/0xe0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_cfg_request_work+0x82/0x120 [thunderbolt]
  process_one_work+0x675/0x1230
  worker_thread+0x5e6/0xf70
  kthread+0x365/0x470
  ret_from_fork+0x54d/0x710
  ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

 Second to last potentially related work creation:
  __queue_work+0x575/0xd00
  queue_work_on+0x77/0x80
  tb_cfg_request_cancel+0xc7/0x260 [thunderbolt]
  tb_cfg_request_sync+0x1f6/0x250 [thunderbolt]
  tb_cfg_read_raw+0x367/0x510 [thunderbolt]
  tb_cfg_read+0xec/0x240 [thunderbolt]
  tb_port_get_link_generation+0x258/0x420 [thunderbolt]
  tb_usb3_consumed_bandwidth+0x1c1/0x2c0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_tunnel_consumed_bandwidth+0xfd/0x910 [thunderbolt]
  tb_available_bandwidth+0x5f2/0xeb0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_recalc_estimated_bandwidth+0x2a0/0x1bc0 [thunderbolt]
  tb_handle_dp_bandwidth_request+0x1897/0x5e20 [thunderbolt]
  process_one_work+0x675/0x1230
  worker_thread+0x5e6/0xf70
  kthread+0x365/0x470
  ret_from_fork+0x54d/0x710
  ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

The last stack trace is helpful because it shows that we are cancelling
a request and looking at tb_cfg_request_cancel() what might happen is
that tb_cfg_request_work() completes right before tb_cfg_request_cancel()
starts and because of this it will call schedule_work() queueing the
same work to run again. However, it is already removed from the
request_queue and reference count is dropped so when
tb_cfg_request_work() triggers again it will access memory that is
already released.

Fix this so that we first make sure a cancelled request is not handed
away from tb_cfg_request_find() or scheduled to run. Then instead of
relying on the worker to clean up the request we will do it in

[Commit description truncated; see the upstream URL below]

Changed files:
  drivers/thunderbolt/ctl.c

Diff excerpt:

Not included in this email. See the upstream URL for the full patch.

Full patch:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=71b3c517e02af2c46ad58d4b3706b7c3cb24936d

======================================================================
DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY
======================================================================

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-98694 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-98694

The original CVE announcement normally does not include a security-level
estimate. In particular, it may not contain a CVSS assessment, an impact
level, or enough information to determine whether the reported bug is a
practically relevant security issue. One purpose of this parallel CVE list
is to provide that missing technical and prioritization information.

The original goal of the AL-KERNEL project was to prioritize Linux kernel
CVE analysis automatically before manual review. The system can also help
identify non-security issues that may be suitable for automatic closure.

This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin.

The first analysis stage combines an autonomous classifier with additional
LLM-based analysis. The autonomous classifier runs locally on a CPU and is
based on a backpropagation neural network. Together, these mechanisms
produce a technical vulnerability description, identify likely weakness
types, estimate CVSS severity, and provide input for ActionableScore.

Two CVSS estimates are retained because incomplete kernel vulnerability
information often permits more than one defensible interpretation:

  Conservative CVSS vector: AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H
  The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
  The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 7.5

The conservative vector represents a lower-impact interpretation.
The Best/paranoid vector intentionally represents a plausible upper-bound
interpretation and should not automatically be treated as demonstrated
real-world impact.

CVSS may also need to be adjusted for a particular Linux deployment,
because actual reachability, privileges, enabled kernel configuration,
hardware, namespaces, exposed device nodes, and other environmental
conditions can differ significantly between systems.

A separate ActionableScore mechanism evaluates practical remediation
urgency. Its analysis may include reachability, attack prerequisites,
subsystem exposure, memory-corruption characteristics, denial-of-service
reliability, and possible confidentiality, integrity, or
privilege-escalation impact.

  Conservative ActionableScore: unknown
  Paranoid ActionableScore: 4

The final base severity is taken directly from the second tab-separated
field of the AL-KERNEL classification result. ActionableScore does not
replace or independently override that final AL-KERNEL decision, and
if ActionableScore adjusted impact level of ALKERNEL, then you would see
self-readable flags above like INCREASED_TO_HIGH_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCOREHIGHEREQTHAN7.

For an AL-KERNEL result of MODERATE, this report uses the following
additional presentation split:

  ActionableScore below 5   -> MODERATE REGULAR
  ActionableScore 5 or more -> MODERATE 7.0

The distinction between MODERATE REGULAR and MODERATE 7.0 makes it
possible to identify Moderate issues that should receive manual analysis
and fixes before lower-priority MODERATE REGULAR issues. In many cases,
MODERATE REGULAR fixes may wait for a later rebase or routine update.

There is one override in which MODERATE REGULAR becomes MODERATE 7.0
even when the ActionableScore is below 5. When the AL-KERNEL result
contains the KPANIC flag, a MODERATE result is always presented as
MODERATE 7.0. The KPANIC flag selected with few regexps without
usage of AI at all, so it helps to detect cases when Kernel Crash happens
and similar (to filter False-Negative results from the LLM usage).

KPANIC indicates that a reliable kernel crash, kernel panic, or similarly
serious kernel availability impact was identified by the classification
workflow.

AL-KERNEL base severity for this report: MODERATE
KPANIC detected for this report: YES
Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): MODERATE 7.0

These results are intended to support engineering triage. They are
machine-generated estimates, and cases marked for manual review should
be validated by a human security engineer before final disposition.
For more info read docs linked from here: https://kernelcve.org/
(and you can submit you own patch there to generate such a report
for non-existant CVE-id yet).

Note that in many cases this AI tool selects higher severity, than
real is (means you can expect Importants instead of Moderate 7.0 or
Moderates 7.0 instead of regular Moderates). If you see such cases,
please use reply email interface to add additional manual analyses
info to this particular CVE.
And please, please, let me know when you see Lows instead of Importants
or Important instead of Low (because particular for such cases I
need to tune this AI tool to make it better for this one and next similar).
My contact email for such notifications is alexanjelausa@gmail.com (and both
send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).