Veeam Warns Critical 9.8 Linux Kernel Flaw Could Crash Backup Appliances and Disrupt Recovery Operations

A critical use-after-free vulnerability (CVE-2026-98432, CVSS 9.8) in the Linux kernel's TCP/IPv4 stack puts Veeam backup and recovery appliances at risk of denial of service or memory corruption. This matters because backup infrastructure is a last line of defence — if recovery systems are disrupted or destroyed, organisations lose the ability to restore operations after any incident, ransomware attack included. The flaw affects multiple Veeam appliance variants, meaning the attack surface is broad across both software and infrastructure deployments. Even without confirmed active exploitation, a CVSS score of 9.8 demands immediate remediation priority, as threat actors routinely weaponise high-severity kernel flaws once public details are available.