Look up another CVE · open CVE-2026-98859 in the interactive tracker
CVE-2026-98859
HID: multitouch: stop the release timer from being rearmed on remove
Published 2026-10-18 (today) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem drivers/hid. Debian urgency: not yet assigned.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-98859 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | vulnerable | 6.1.190-1 | No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series bookworm tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for bookworm have historically landed a median of 23 days after publication. |
| Debian 13trixie | fixed | 6.12.113-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.12.113-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.2.10-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.2.10-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.2.10-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.2.10-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
mt_remove() quiesces the sticky-finger timer before stopping the hardware: timer_delete_sync(&td->release_timer); sysfs_remove_group(&hdev->dev.kobj, &mt_attribute_group); hid_hw_stop(hdev); timer_delete_sync() waits for a running callback and dequeues the timer, but it does not stop the timer from being armed again. The transport is still delivering reports at that point, and the report path rearms it: if (app->quirks & MT_QUIRK_STICKY_FINGERS) { if (td->mt_io_flags & MT_IO_SLOTS_MASK) mod_timer(&td->release_timer, jiffies + msecs_to_jiffies(100)); A report that arrives after timer_delete_sync() has returned therefore leaves the timer queued. td is allocated with devm_kzalloc() against hdev->dev, so it is freed when the driver is unbound, after mt_remove() returns. When the timer fires afterwards, mt_expired_timeout() dereferences the freed td: struct mt_device *td = timer_container_of(td, t, release_timer); struct hid_device *hdev = td->hdev; if (test_and_set_bit_lock(MT_IO_FLAGS_RUNNING, &td->mt_io_flags)) Simply moving the teardown after hid_hw_stop() does not fix this on its own, because mt_expired_timeout() calls mt_release_contacts(), which walks hdev->inputs; the timer still has to be quiesced before hid_hw_stop() tears the input devices down. Use timer_shutdown_sync() instead, which additionally makes any later mod_timer() a no-op, so neither ordering constraint has to be traded off against the other. This is the final-teardown pattern the function was introduced for, and hid-wiimote already uses it for the same reason.
Where it lives
The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.
drivers/hid/hid-multitouch.c
- What this is
- HID CORE LAYERMAINTAINERS section matched on drivers/hid/ · linux-input@vger.kernel.org · Maintained
- Kernel module
- hid_multitouch
Check it on the machine
grep -wE 'CONFIG_HID|CONFIG_HID_MULTITOUCH|CONFIG_HID_SUPPORT' /boot/config-$(uname -r)Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.
lsmod | grep -w hid_multitouchPrints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.
Show whether Debian builds this, per release
Debian builds this, but not on every flavour. At least one release below builds the code on some of its kernel flavours and not on others, so the answer depends on the architecture and flavour installed.
- bookworm, trixieMnot built on arm64/cloud-arm64
- forky, sidMnot built on amd64/cloud-amd64, arm64/cloud-arm64
- M
- a module where it is built at all; some flavours do not build it
- Build switches
- CONFIG_HID, CONFIG_HID_MULTITOUCH, CONFIG_HID_SUPPORT
- Reads as
- all on means the file is compiled; any one off means it is not.
From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages
Signals
- Published
- 2026-10-18 (today)source
- CVSS
- no vector published, unrated
- Attack vector
- not published
- EPSS
- not scored
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- not yet assignedsource
- Subsystem
- drivers/hid
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 4.13 | 6.12.113 | 1f1bd9a3117f |
| 4.13 | 6.18.56 | 0c19a6c1d25f |
| 4.13 | 7.2.10 | a0125ca86e40 |
| 4.13 | 7.3 | 5acb2dace582 |
Why the CNA scored it this way
The kernel CNA published no CVSS vector and no reasoning for CVE-2026-98859, which is why it is shown as unrated rather than given an invented score. 6,405 of the 20,413 CVEs here carry reasoning; this is not one of them.