Memory exhaustion via 32-bit queue admission overflow
Published Sep 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 17, 2026
Integer overflow in Linux traffic queues allows local users with root privileges to exhaust kernel memory via queued traffic. The gred_enqueue(), bfifo_enqueue(), and plug_enqueue() functions add backlog and packet length in 32 bits, letting wrapped values bypass queue limits. Reproduction requires root-configured limits near 4 GiB and more than 4 GiB of queued traffic, with the default virtual queue unconfigured for gred; the documented result is out-of-memory exhaustion, not a specified crash or reboot.
Summary
What happened
Integer overflow in Linux traffic queues allows local users with root privileges to exhaust kernel memory via queued traffic. The gred_enqueue(), bfifo_enqueue(), and plug_enqueue() functions add backlog and packet length in 32 bits, letting wrapped values bypass queue limits. Reproduction requires root-configured limits near 4 GiB and more than 4 GiB of queued traffic, with the default virtual queue unconfigured for gred; the documented result is out-of-memory exhaustion, not a specified crash or reboot.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-90109
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 17, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499.001
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 17, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 17, 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=4.2
- Affected versionversion=a3eb95f891d6130b1fc03dd07a8b54cf0a5c8ab8 <3fb51b3960342bbee563543f8d33710fd0fb5a96
- Affected versionversion=a3eb95f891d6130b1fc03dd07a8b54cf0a5c8ab8 <4c660ee8c809637909f4f7eb1017f7b9401c75c4
- Affected versionversion=a3eb95f891d6130b1fc03dd07a8b54cf0a5c8ab8 <8b2d8c70b969bf84f9e248bfaf2a7135129f2eb6
- Affected versionversion=a3eb95f891d6130b1fc03dd07a8b54cf0a5c8ab8 <d98b92f3d57976ae185238946ec5ea0be32195aa
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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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.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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