Out-of-bounds array access in Linux kernel ac100 RTC driver
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Fixed
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
The Linux kernel ac100 real-time clock driver, from commit f316cdff8d67 onward, sets the number of clock outputs only after it has already stored each output in the array. This ordering error makes the bounds sanitizer report an out-of-bounds array access during probe, and with CONFIG_UBSAN_TRAP the first store traps.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-06
Description from the CNA
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: rtc: ac100: Assign .num before accessing .hws Commit f316cdff8d67 ("clk: Annotate struct clk_hw_onecell_data with __counted_by") annotated the hws member of 'struct clk_hw_onecell_data' with __counted_by, which informs the bounds sanitizer (UBSAN_BOUNDS) about the number of elements in .hws[], so that it can warn when .hws[] is accessed out of bounds. As noted in that change, the __counted_by member must be initialized with the number of elements before the first array access happens, otherwise there will be a warning from each access prior to the initialization because the number of elements is zero. This occurs in ac100_rtc_register_clks() due to .num being assigned only after every clkout clock has been stored in .hws[]. With CONFIG_UBSAN_BOUNDS and a compiler that implements __counted_by (GCC 15.1+ or Clang 20.1+), this triggers an array-index-out-of-bounds report during probe, and with CONFIG_UBSAN_TRAP the first store traps. Initialize .num with AC100_CLKOUT_NUM, the number of elements .hws[] was allocated with, right after the allocation. That is the value the loop counter ends up at on the success path anyway, so the provider's behaviour is unchanged.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
Fixed in Linux kernel 6.6.160, 6.12.113, 6.18.56, 7.2.10 and 7.3.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-06
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.6.160, 6.12.113, 6.18.56, 7.2.10, 7.3
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 7 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5
Timeline
- 2026-10-18 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-98848
- 2026-10-18 Alias added: GHSA-hf5g-mj3f-66c7
- 2026-10-19 Fix available: Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-10-21 Fix available: Linux/[email protected], Linux/Linux@e77c5fc1f39fdb06ecd1f55b101eea1e1db2ffef · CNA
- 2026-10-21 1 new reference · CNA
- 2026-10-24 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-24 CVSS score added · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e77c5fc1f39fdb06ecd1f55b101eea1e1db2ffef
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6bb55381daf1a1bed0657189a1396e7467712525
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/160619b38707241e22569f9c983a4b3d0890996a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ad1bf77039cba83373bf1eff3784655e3e3ed2ab
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6a4117eee82dd85f11bf898bf66026764011eeb6
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Sources
- CVE-2026-98848 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-98848 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-hf5g-mj3f-66c7 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-98848 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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