Local privilege escalation via forged cifs.spnego descriptions
Published Jun 1, 2026 · Updated Jun 1, 2026
Improper input validation in the Linux kernel CIFS client allows local users to gain elevated privileges through forged cifs.spnego keys. The cifs.spnego key parser accepts userspace-created descriptions carrying pid, uid, creduid, and upcall_target as though CIFS generated them under its private spnego_cred. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access, CIFS with cifs.upcall, and user namespaces; a forged request can drive privileged helper behavior.
Summary
What happened
Improper input validation in the Linux kernel CIFS client allows local users to gain elevated privileges through forged cifs.spnego keys. The cifs.spnego key parser accepts userspace-created descriptions carrying pid, uid, creduid, and upcall_target as though CIFS generated them under its private spnego_cred. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access, CIFS with cifs.upcall, and user namespaces; a forged request can drive privileged helper behavior.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-46243
- Published
- Jun 1, 2026
- Updated
- Jun 1, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-20, CWE-825, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jun 1, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jun 1, 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?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=2.6.24
- Affected versionversion=f1d662a7d5e5322e583aad6b3cfec03d8f27b435 <0aece6685fc80a8de492688ca2315fb86ec379c7
- Affected versionversion=f1d662a7d5e5322e583aad6b3cfec03d8f27b435 <2035acfb17221729b1b8ac335e941868a04ca079
- Affected versionversion=f1d662a7d5e5322e583aad6b3cfec03d8f27b435 <3da1fdf4efbc490041eb4f836bf596201203f8f2
- Affected versionversion=f1d662a7d5e5322e583aad6b3cfec03d8f27b435 <7713bd320ed4fc3d08a227cd8e41242219a16981
- Affected versionversion=f1d662a7d5e5322e583aad6b3cfec03d8f27b435 <91f89c1d83e80417629791fcef6af8140d7d01c8
- Affected versionversion=f1d662a7d5e5322e583aad6b3cfec03d8f27b435 <9544559e59438a4b609b2fdfa0763d8360572824
- Affected versionversion=f1d662a7d5e5322e583aad6b3cfec03d8f27b435 <a3bbda6502a9398b816fa2e71c9a3f955f58013d
- Affected versionversion=f1d662a7d5e5322e583aad6b3cfec03d8f27b435 <cf20038657d6d4974349556a34e08fe0490bebbc
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
- CIFSwitch proof of conceptfunctional · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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