Local privilege escalation via ERDMA CQ use-after-free
Published Sep 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 18, 2026
Use-after-free in Linux kernel 6.0 and later affected branches allows local users to escalate privileges through ERDMA CQ teardown. erdma_destroy_cq removes and frees a completion queue while scheduled EQ handlers can still dereference it and invoke freed callback pointers. Exploitation requires access to an ERDMA uverbs device and an attacker-controlled race between locally generated CQ events and destruction, enabling kernel control-flow hijacking or a host panic.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Linux kernel 6.0 and later affected branches allows local users to escalate privileges through ERDMA CQ teardown. erdma_destroy_cq removes and frees a completion queue while scheduled EQ handlers can still dereference it and invoke freed callback pointers. Exploitation requires access to an ERDMA uverbs device and an attacker-controlled race between locally generated CQ events and destruction, enabling kernel control-flow hijacking or a host panic.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-90309
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 18, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
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
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=155055771704f8cbb5c176a4309b7dc30a50450c <05b8ca493dd02319bca93c640b259c2ba51ef321
- Affected versionversion=155055771704f8cbb5c176a4309b7dc30a50450c <1fc9c1933959d2776a1ce7bf424251b8b5b586cd
- Affected versionversion=155055771704f8cbb5c176a4309b7dc30a50450c <4545f355654d044d35a31cd01cc46f491a8a7c36
- Affected versionversion=155055771704f8cbb5c176a4309b7dc30a50450c <610ef81797bb4f709e8675c1d8d093bb9ccdcbd8
- Affected versionversion=155055771704f8cbb5c176a4309b7dc30a50450c <98df2aee1459ee1c62c70cbe9b370d2a532aea36
- Affected versionversion=155055771704f8cbb5c176a4309b7dc30a50450c <c0a83f29a24c7e7f8516630848ef6db4c174deed
- Affected versionversion=6.0
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.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Get started to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Get started