CVE-2026-72069
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk49th percentile - higher than 49% of all known CVEs
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the RT locking mechanism has a use-after-free vulnerability due to incorrect RCU protection in rt_spin_unlock(). The function releases RCU protection before unlocking, enabling a race condition that leads to use of freed memory.
Risk Assessment
The vulnerability could lead to data integrity issues or system crashes, and in extreme cases privilege escalation.
Recommendation
Apply the Linux kernel patch that moves the rcu_read_unlock() call after the unlock operation to match non-RT semantics.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-98164Unknown
In the Linux kernel, KVM x86/mmu's kvm_gfn_is_write_tracked() only checks the supplied memslot, but page tracking is per-address-space and shadow pages are shared across address spaces. With SMM, a GFN can be write-tracked in one address space and appear untracked in another. The fix checks the supplied slot first, then the slot for the other address space, preventing mmu_try_to_unsync_pages() from marking an upper-level shadow page unsync and triggering a BUG in pte_list_remove().
- CVE-2026-98048Unknown
In the Linux kernel's BPF subsystem, mark_fastcall_pattern_for_call() must ensure that a matched "spill; call; fill" instruction series is not interrupted by a jump. Otherwise the rewrite applied by bpf_remove_fastcall_spills_fills() is unsound. The fix records instructions targeted by jumps in insn_aux_data[*].jump_target and uses this flag to stop growing a pattern.
- CVE-2026-98047Unknown
In the Linux kernel's BPF subsystem, in_rbtree_lock_required_cb() only checks the innermost verifier frame, so rbtree callback restrictions disappear in a nested static subprogram call frame. The subprogram can unlock the tree, remove and drop the node being compared, then relock, leading to freed memory being linked into the tree.
- CVE-2026-98046Unknown
In the Linux kernel's BPF subsystem, bpf_btf_find_by_name_kind() returns a new BTF object fd through __btf_new_fd(), which reaches anon_inode_getfd() that can sleep while allocating or expanding the current task fd table. The helper prototype does not set might_sleep, so the verifier allows the helper in non-sleepable contexts such as BPF timer callbacks.
- CVE-2026-98045Unknown
In the Linux kernel, a BPF verifier vulnerability affects stack helpers that may block on filesystem reads (e.g., resolving build IDs) but were not marked as sleepable. The verifier could still allow these helpers from non-sleepable regions such as RCU or preemption-disabled sections.
- CVE-2026-98044Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier mishandled legacy packet-load instructions (BPF_LD_ABS/BPF_LD_IND) reached from callbacks, triggering a verifier bug warning and an -EFAULT on BPF_PROG_LOAD. A privileged program loader could trigger this issue.
- CVE-2026-98043Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier incorrectly inferred that a pointer with an unbounded offset is non-NULL based solely on its type. As a result, a BPF program could pass verification while a NULL pointer dereference occurred at runtime.
- CVE-2026-98042Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier could resurrect a scalar id dropped by collect_linked_regs() because snapshots of compared registers were taken before linked registers were collected. This could lead to range inconsistencies and precision propagation issues.
- CVE-2026-98041High
In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier incorrectly predicted the outcome of pointer vs zero comparisons in JMP32 instructions, failing to distinguish BPF_JMP from BPF_JMP32 comparisons. This led to incorrect inference that a jump is always taken.
- CVE-2026-98040Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the BPF verifier did not mark the zero register as precise for a register-form NULL check. As a result, one path was pruned and the program could dereference a zero pointer at runtime.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: locking/rt: Fix the incorrect RCU protection in rt_spin_unlock() rt_spin_unlock() releases the RCU protection before unlocking the lock. That opens the door for the following UAF scenario: T1 T2 spin_lock(&p->lock); rcu_read_lock(); invalidate(p); p = rcu_dereference(ptr); rcu_assign_pointer(ptr, NULL); if (!p) return; spin_unlock(&p->lock); spin_lock(&p->lock) lock(&lock->lock); rcu_read_lock(); kfree_rcu(p); rcu_read_unlock(); .... spin_unlock(&p->lock) rcu_read_unlock(); // Ends grace period rcu_do_batch() kfree(p); UAF -> rt_mutex_cmpxchg_release(&lock->lock...) Regular spinlocks keep preemption disabled accross the unlock operation, which provides full RCU protection, but the RT substitution fails to resemble that. Same applies for the rwlock substitution. Move the rcu_read_unlock() invocation past the unlock operations to match the non-RT semantics. This makes it asymmetric vs. rt_xxx_lock(), but that's harmless as the caller needs to hold RCU read lock across the lock operation. The migrate_enable() call stays before the unlock operation because there is no per CPU operation in the unlock path which would require migration to be kept disabled.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

