Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-23267

 

Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-23267

Published: March 20, 2026


Vulnerability identifier: #VU124183
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 5.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-23267
CWE-ID: CWE-367
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability: No public exploit available

Vulnerability details

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges.

The vulnerability exists due to a race condition in the F2FS filesystem's handling of checkpoint flags during atomic write operations when processing concurrent atomic commit and checkpoint writes. A local user can trigger a specially crafted sequence of atomic file operations to cause an inconsistency in the IS_CHECKPOINTED flag, leading to improper state management of node pages.

The issue arises specifically during atomic write scenarios where a concurrent checkpoint write completes before the atomic commit fully marks the page, resulting in incorrect flag state that can be exploited to manipulate filesystem metadata structures.


Affected software

Linux kernel
Ubuntu
linux (Ubuntu package)
linux-azure-fips (Ubuntu package)
linux-hwe-6.8 (Ubuntu package)
linux-nvidia-tegra (Ubuntu package)
linux-aws-6.8 (Ubuntu package)
linux-raspi (Ubuntu package)
linux-azure-fde (Ubuntu package)
linux-azure-fde-6.8 (Ubuntu package)
linux-azure (Ubuntu package)
linux-raspi-realtime (Ubuntu package)

How to mitigate CVE-2026-23267

Install security update from vendor's repository.

Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
linux (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 6.8.0-134.134, 6.8.0-1057.58~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1058.61+fips1, 6.8.0-1058.61~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1060.61, 6.8.0-1060.63+fips1, 6.8.0-1060.63~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1063.69, 6.8.0-1063.69+fips1, 6.8.1-1055.56, 6.8.1-1055.56~22.04.1
linux-azure-fips (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 6.8.0-134.134+fips1, 6.8.0-1062.69+fips1
linux-hwe-6.8 (Ubuntu package) - update to 6.8.0-136.136~22.04.1
linux-nvidia-tegra (Ubuntu package) - update to 6.8.0-1029.30
linux-aws-6.8 (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 6.8.0-1045.48, 6.8.0-1057.58~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1058.61.1, 6.8.0-1058.64, 6.8.0-1060.61~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1060.63~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1063.69~22.04.1
linux-raspi (Ubuntu package) - update to 6.8.0-1060.64
linux-azure-fde (Ubuntu package) - update to 6.8.0-1062.69
linux-azure-fde-6.8 (Ubuntu package) - update to 6.8.0-1062.69~22.04.1
linux-azure (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 6.8.0-1063.71, 6.8.0-1063.71~22.04.1
linux-raspi-realtime (Ubuntu package) - update to 6.8.0-2049.50

External References

Related Security Bulletins