Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-99173
Published: October 29, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU158419
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 5.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-99173
CWE-ID: CWE-416
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local user to potentially cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to a use-after-free in eventfs inode lifetime management when an SRCU grace period permits an inode to be freed before an ongoing RCU path walk completes. A local user can trigger overlapping path lookups and dentry teardown to potentially cause a denial of service when tracefs_d_revalidate() reads the freed inode's is_freed field.
Affected software
Linux kernel
Debian Linux
linux (Debian package)
Debian Linux
linux (Debian package)
How to mitigate CVE-2026-99173
Install security update from vendor's repository.
Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
linux (Debian package) - update to 6.12.115-2
linux (Debian package) - update to 6.12.115-2