Receive-queue purge via AF_UNIX garbage-collection race
Published Mar 25, 2026 · Updated Mar 25, 2026
Race condition in Linux Kernel affected releases allows local users to purge a live AF_UNIX socket's receive queue. MSG_PEEK raises an in-flight socket file reference without notifying garbage collection, so unix_vertex_dead() reuses stale liveness results and classifies both sockets in a strongly connected component as dead. The race requires peeking a socket, closing its peer, and overlapping AF_UNIX garbage collection; the bounded consequence is loss of the live socket's queued descriptors.
Summary
What happened
Race condition in Linux Kernel affected releases allows local users to purge a live AF_UNIX socket's receive queue. MSG_PEEK raises an in-flight socket file reference without notifying garbage collection, so unix_vertex_dead() reuses stale liveness results and classifies both sockets in a strongly connected component as dead. The race requires peeking a socket, closing its peer, and overlapping AF_UNIX garbage collection; the bounded consequence is loss of the live socket's queued descriptors.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-23394
- Published
- Mar 25, 2026
- Updated
- Mar 25, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-362, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 25, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 25, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=118f457da9ed58a79e24b73c2ef0aa1987241f0e <37dd7ab332396eb8dd80b2dc7ea4b61abf767436
- Affected versionversion=118f457da9ed58a79e24b73c2ef0aa1987241f0e <e5b31d988a41549037b8d8721a3c3cae893d8670
- Affected versionversion=6.10
- Affected versionversion=61a75360dca93c945ef6bd757f8b8a96f39b77cb
- Affected versionversion=7b1ffbd3b22e755d481d49647dcb7c5cfbde5844
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo