Local privilege escalation via blk-cgroup lifetime race
Published Sep 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 18, 2026
Use-after-free in affected Linux kernel releases allows local users to corrupt kernel memory through a blk-cgroup race. blkcg_activate_policy() can traverse a blkg whose policy data blkg_free_workfn() freed before removing the blkg from q->blkg_list, causing stale reads, writes, or a double free. A low-privileged owner of a delegated cgroup-v2 subtree can race io.max or io.latency writes with child-cgroup removal, enabling kernel compromise or a host crash.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in affected Linux kernel releases allows local users to corrupt kernel memory through a blk-cgroup race. blkcg_activate_policy() can traverse a blkg whose policy data blkg_free_workfn() freed before removing the blkg from q->blkg_list, causing stale reads, writes, or a double free. A low-privileged owner of a delegated cgroup-v2 subtree can race io.max or io.latency writes with child-cgroup removal, enabling kernel compromise or a host crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-90326
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 18, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499, 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
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=6.1.16 <6.1.17
- Affected versionversion=6.2.3 <6.2.4
- Affected versionversion=6.3
- Affected versionversion=81c1188905f88b77743d1fdeeedfc8cb7b67787d <b5dae1cd0d8368b4338430ff93403df67f0b8bcc
- Affected versionversion=bfe46d2efe46c5c952f982e2ca94fe2ec5e58e2a <083b58373463a6e5ee60ecb135269348f68ad7df
- Affected versionversion=f1c006f1c6850c14040f8337753a63119bba39b9 <2cf9f50a38c1839e549a08e22aa35e8d69e2c8fd
- Affected versionversion=f1c006f1c6850c14040f8337753a63119bba39b9 <5313d4d41739b0cb63000747c97bb1217ac45f3e
- Affected versionversion=f1c006f1c6850c14040f8337753a63119bba39b9 <ac34e655dffa74349d885a43d098115336f53842
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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