Vulnerability in Linux kernel (CVE-2026-23157)
Summary
Vulnerability in Linux kernel (CVE-2026-23157). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: do not strictly require dirty metadata threshold for metadata writepages
[BUG]
There is an internal report that over 1000 processes are
waiting at the io_schedule_timeout() of balance_dirty_pages(), causing
a system hang and trigger a kernel coredump.
The kernel is v6.4 kernel based, but the root problem still applies to
any upstream kernel before v6.18.
[CAUSE]
From Jan Kara for his wisdom on the dirty page balance behavior first.
This cgroup dirty limit was what was actually playing the role here
because the cgroup had only a small amount of memory and so the dirty
limit for it was something like 16MB.
Dirty throttling is responsible for enforcing that nobody can dirty
(significantly) more dirty memory than there's dirty limit. Thus when
a task is dirtying pages it periodically enters into balance_dirty_pages()
and we let it sleep there to slow down the dirtying.
When the system is over dirty limit already (either globally or within
a cgroup of the running task), we will not let the task exit from
balance_dirty_pages() until the number of dirty pages drops below the
limit.
So in this particular case, as I already mentioned, there was a cgroup
with relatively small amount of memory and as a result with dirty limit
set at 16MB. A task from that cgroup has dirtied about 28MB worth of
pages in btrfs btree inode and these were practically the only dirty
pages in tha…
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD GitHub Advisory
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-23157 has been found in Linux kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. CVSS score: 5.5/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Linux kernel CVE-2026-23157" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-23157 (Linux kernel) — CWE-667 / CVSS v3 5.5
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (CWE-667) exists in Linux kernel.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Linux kernel.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 5.5/10). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Audit SBOM/dependencies to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
Audit SBOM/dependencies for affected components.資産台帳・SBOM・依存マニフェストで Linux kernel を使っているサービスとバージョンを洗い出す。
-
2Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Affected packages
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2026-23157 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.1.167-r0
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23157 linux
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23157 linux
References
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- advisory github.com
- package git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web github.com
- web cert-portal.siemens.com