Use-After-Free in Kernel (CVE-2026-23273)
Summary
Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2026-23273). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.14, 6.19.4 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
macvlan: observe an RCU grace period in macvlan_common_newlink() error path
valis reported that a race condition still happens after my prior patch.
macvlan_common_newlink() might have made @dev visible before
detecting an error, and its caller will directly call free_netdev(dev).
We must respect an RCU period, either in macvlan or the core networking
stack.
After adding a temporary mdelay(1000) in macvlan_forward_source_one()
to open the race window, valis repro was:
ip link add p1 type veth peer p2
ip link set address 00:00:00:00:00:20 dev p1
ip link set up dev p1
ip link set up dev p2
ip link add mv0 link p2 type macvlan mode source
(ip link add invalid% link p2 type macvlan mode source macaddr add
00:00:00:00:00:20 &) ; sleep 0.5 ; ping -c1 -I p1 1.2.3.4
PING 1.2.3.4 (1.2.3.4): 56 data bytes
RTNETLINK answers: Invalid argument
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in macvlan_forward_source
(drivers/net/macvlan.c:408 drivers/net/macvlan.c:444)
Read of size 8 at addr ffff888016bb89c0 by task e/175
CPU: 1 UID: 1000 PID: 175 Comm: e Not tainted 6.19.0-rc8+ #33 NONE
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.14.0-2 04/01/2014
Call Trace:
dump_stack_lvl (lib/dump_stack.c:123)
print_report (mm/kasan/report.c:379 mm/kasan/report.c:482)
? macvlan_forward_source (drivers/net/macvlan.c:408 drivers/net/macvlan.c:444)
kasan_report (mm/kasan/report.c:597)
? macvlan_forward_source (drivers/net/mac…
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-2026-23273 has been found in Kernel.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 7.8/10.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.14, 6.19.4 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2026-23273" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-23273 (Kernel) — CWE-416 / CVSS v3 7.8
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Patched: 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.14, 6.19.4 — apply immediately
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.
Use-after-free (CWE-416) exists in Kernel.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.8/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.14, 6.19.4.
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. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
Kernelを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Apply patch patch
Upgrade Kernel to 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.14, 6.19.4ステージング環境で 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.14, 6.19.4 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
-
3Post-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-2026-23273 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.1.167-r0
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23273 linux Fixed in: 5.10.257-1
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23273 linux-hwe-edge
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- 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 git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web cert-portal.siemens.com
- web cert-portal.siemens.com
- web github.com
- web cert-portal.siemens.com
- web cert-portal.siemens.com