Unspecified impact via mixed-pointer atomic fixup
Published Sep 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 18, 2026
Incorrect pointer validation in the Linux kernel BPF verifier allows attackers to cause unspecified impact via crafted atomic RMW paths. The verifier saved a destination type only for PTR_TO_ARENA, so an ordinary-pointer path could reach the same instruction without a type-mismatch check before fixup rewrote every path as BPF_PROBE_ATOMIC. A BPF program must converge incompatible pointer paths on one atomic instruction, and the public record does not describe the resulting security consequence.
Summary
What happened
Incorrect pointer validation in the Linux kernel BPF verifier allows attackers to cause unspecified impact via crafted atomic RMW paths. The verifier saved a destination type only for PTR_TO_ARENA, so an ordinary-pointer path could reach the same instruction without a type-mismatch check before fixup rewrote every path as BPF_PROBE_ATOMIC. A BPF program must converge incompatible pointer paths on one atomic instruction, and the public record does not describe the resulting security consequence.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-90177
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 18, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- Unavailable
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 17, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 18, 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=6.10
- Affected versionversion=d503a04f8bc0c75dc9db9452d8cc79d748afb752 <4bc49ae344d65cfcef738f281ac575cf73ca2fc5
- Affected versionversion=d503a04f8bc0c75dc9db9452d8cc79d748afb752 <eb287c6e81dedef92da01eb947f380d0aae513c3
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
No sourced classifications are available.
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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