Kernel panic via incompatible cgroup BPF replacement
Published Sep 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 17, 2026
Null-pointer dereference in Linux cgroup BPF allows local users to panic the kernel via incompatible program replacement. In kernel/bpf/cgroup.c, __cgroup_bpf_replace leaves required per-CPU cgroup storage unallocated when a replacement program introduces storage use, causing bpf_get_local_storage to encounter an uninitialized pointer. Exploitation requires privileges to attach and replace cgroup BPF programs and execution of the replacement, interrupting the host rather than granting additional privileges.
Summary
What happened
Null-pointer dereference in Linux cgroup BPF allows local users to panic the kernel via incompatible program replacement. In kernel/bpf/cgroup.c, __cgroup_bpf_replace leaves required per-CPU cgroup storage unallocated when a replacement program introduces storage use, causing bpf_get_local_storage to encounter an uninitialized pointer. Exploitation requires privileges to attach and replace cgroup BPF programs and execution of the replacement, interrupting the host rather than granting additional privileges.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-90250
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 17, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- 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=0c991ebc8c69d29b7fc44db17075c5aa5253e2ab <12feca126831556dc7fabe5a3ba28fbd328768b6
- Affected versionversion=0c991ebc8c69d29b7fc44db17075c5aa5253e2ab <1ab3da12061d7ccb099f7e925fa2d865967a316a
- Affected versionversion=0c991ebc8c69d29b7fc44db17075c5aa5253e2ab <3f562c537e9ecf4bc5e206cfffc2cc047f1b7e94
- Affected versionversion=0c991ebc8c69d29b7fc44db17075c5aa5253e2ab <a033c950f6731be88a7da98604ed78f302f15b80
- Affected versionversion=5.7
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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