Uncontrolled Recursion in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-74576

Vulnerability details

The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to uncontrolled recursion in the slab free path in mm/slub.c when freeing slab object extension arrays involved in cyclic kmalloc cache relationships. A local user can trigger memory allocation and freeing patterns to cause a denial of service.

Exploitation requires memory allocation profiling or slab object extension handling to be active, and the issue can exhaust the kernel stack.

Affected software

How to mitigate CVE-2026-74576

External References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3e71bfbdd3fd81ee9fefd867fdb2be62bade4140
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d01e88d421a6d07f35235600a43fbd0e551cf292
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d9e6a7623938968e3752b67e37eaff097e559a54
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ebefca49e4c69df24ba9307bfe0806230301d5c6

Related Security Bulletins

• Uncontrolled Recursion in Linux kernel mm
• Debian update for linux