Denial of service via uninterruptible instruction rewriting
Published Oct 18, 2026 · Updated Oct 18, 2026
Denial of service in Linux BPF instruction rewriting allows local users to stall program loading via crafted BPF programs. The bpf_opt_remove_nops() pass removes jumps individually, repeatedly moving instruction arrays and adjusting branches without signal checks or rescheduling. Privileged BPF loading is required, and SIGKILL cannot terminate the loading task until the quadratic rewrite work finishes; a crash or permanent hang is not established.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in Linux BPF instruction rewriting allows local users to stall program loading via crafted BPF programs. The bpf_opt_remove_nops() pass removes jumps individually, repeatedly moving instruction arrays and adjusting branches without signal checks or rescheduling. Privileged BPF loading is required, and SIGKILL cannot terminate the loading task until the quadratic rewrite work finishes; a crash or permanent hang is not established.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-98628
- Published
- Oct 18, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 18, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 18, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 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=5.1
- Affected versionversion=52875a04f4b26e7ef30a288ea096f7cfec0e93cd <261b61d3735b042ae25634f795c4540be0fc140c
- Affected versionversion=52875a04f4b26e7ef30a288ea096f7cfec0e93cd <56dc616d7a1f7d134d3e101c455e62b0a24d0cfd
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
No CVSS assessment is available in this record.
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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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Your stack
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