Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-43402
Published: May 8, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU130785
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-43402
CWE-ID: CWE-416
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: Linux Foundation
Affected software:
Linux kernel
Linux kernel
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to a use-after-free in kthread exit handling when processing kernel thread termination. A local user can trigger a kernel thread exit path that leaves affinity_node linked after the kthread structure is freed to cause a denial of service.
The issue occurs because a freed kthread structure can be reused as a struct pid object, allowing dangling list operations to corrupt an RCU callback function pointer.
How to mitigate CVE-2026-43402
Install security update from vendor's repository.