TCP Use-After-Free: CVE-2026-98432 / CVSS 9.8

This critical Linux kernel vulnerability (CVE-2026-98432) allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to exploit the TCP handshake path before any application code runs, creating the risk of system crashes, memory corruption, data exposure, and potentially root-level compromise on affected servers. For CIOs and IT leaders, the key implication is that this is a host-kernel issue—not an application issue—so every Linux workload, including containers, must be assessed and patched at the distribution/kernel level as vendors continue to roll out fixes unevenly.