Host crash via cyclic slab-extension freeing
Published Aug 15, 2026 · Updated Aug 15, 2026
Denial of service in the Linux kernel allows local users to crash a host through unbounded slab-cache free-path recursion. In free_slab_obj_exts(), reciprocal obj_exts allocations from kmalloc-512 and kmalloc-1k make __free_slab() and kfree() repeatedly discard one another's slabs until the kernel stack overflows. The condition requires memory allocation profiling and low-privileged local execution; observed impact is a kernel oops and host crash, not data access or modification.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in the Linux kernel allows local users to crash a host through unbounded slab-cache free-path recursion. In free_slab_obj_exts(), reciprocal obj_exts allocations from kmalloc-512 and kmalloc-1k make __free_slab() and kfree() repeatedly discard one another's slabs until the kernel stack overflows. The condition requires memory allocation profiling and low-privileged local execution; observed impact is a kernel oops and host crash, not data access or modification.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-74576
- Published
- Aug 15, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 15, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-835, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 15, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 15, 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=4b8736964640fe160724e7135dc62883bddcdace <3e71bfbdd3fd81ee9fefd867fdb2be62bade4140
- Affected versionversion=4b8736964640fe160724e7135dc62883bddcdace <d01e88d421a6d07f35235600a43fbd0e551cf292
- Affected versionversion=4b8736964640fe160724e7135dc62883bddcdace <d9e6a7623938968e3752b67e37eaff097e559a54
- Affected versionversion=4b8736964640fe160724e7135dc62883bddcdace <ebefca49e4c69df24ba9307bfe0806230301d5c6
- Affected versionversion=6.10
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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