Improper Check or Handling of Exceptional Conditions in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-53174
Published: June 26, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU135618
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-2026-53174
CWE-ID: CWE-703
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 improper error handling in ovl_iterate_merged() in fs/overlayfs/readdir.c when processing readdir operations on overlay-on-overlay directories. A local user can trigger nested directory iteration to cause a denial of service.
The issue is reachable through overlay-on-overlay readdir via getdents64.
How to mitigate CVE-2026-53174
Install security update from vendor's repository.