Local service interruption via hwrng teardown race
Published May 27, 2026 · Updated May 27, 2026
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel hwrng core allows local users to interrupt service by racing hardware RNG registration or removal. The hwrng_unregister path reads hwrng_fill outside rng_mutex, allowing concurrent teardown to stop one task twice or retain a pointer to a freed task. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and precise timing around hardware RNG registration or removal; the documented impact is availability loss only.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel hwrng core allows local users to interrupt service by racing hardware RNG registration or removal. The hwrng_unregister path reads hwrng_fill outside rng_mutex, allowing concurrent teardown to stop one task twice or retain a pointer to a freed task. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and precise timing around hardware RNG registration or removal; the documented impact is availability loss only.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-45949
- Published
- May 27, 2026
- Updated
- May 27, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-362, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 27, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 27, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=3.17
- Affected versionversion=be4000bc4644d027c519b6361f5ae3bbfc52c347 <ad38f2cdfef9a2f2899c30cad269baec5bfd4a5d
- Affected versionversion=be4000bc4644d027c519b6361f5ae3bbfc52c347 <cc2f39d6ac48e6e3cb2d6240bc0d6df839dd0828
- Affected versionversion=be4000bc4644d027c519b6361f5ae3bbfc52c347 <d5b7730f06994499632026c30e38e0317c4569e2
- Affected versionversion=be4000bc4644d027c519b6361f5ae3bbfc52c347 <dcf416eb88eafe1e3c0f920a14bdffd10bc4d259
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.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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