CriticalCVE-2026-68144

    Linux Kernel: Use After Free (CVE-2026-68144)

    Published Last modified Sources: Ubuntu, Debian LTS, Msrc Update Guide, CVE.org, SUSE, BSI

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    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: phonet: pep: fix use-after-free in pep_get_sb() pep_get_sb() doesn't consider that pskb_may_pull() might have relocated the skb data, and continue to access the older pointer, causing UAF. Reproduced under KASAN: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in pep_get_sb+0x234/0x3b0 Read of size 1 at addr ff11000105510f50 by task repro/157 pep_get_sb+0x234/0x3b0 pipe_handler_do_rcv+0x5f7/0xa10 pep_do_rcv+0x203/0x410 __sk_receive_skb+0x471/0x4a0 phonet_rcv+0x5b3/0x6c0 __netif_receive_skb+0xcc/0x1d0 Refetch the header with skb_header_pointer() after pskb_may_pull(), so the possibly stale pointer is no longer dereferenced.

    Update Linux Kernel to version 5.10.265, Linux Kernel to version 5.15.216, Linux Kernel to version 6.1.183.

    Affected
    • Linux Kernel lt 2.6.28..5.10.265
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.11..5.15.216
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.16..6.1.183
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.2..6.6.148
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.7..6.12.101
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.13..6.18.42
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.19..7.1.6
    Fixed in
    • Linux Kernel 5.10.265
    • Linux Kernel 5.15.216
    • Linux Kernel 6.1.183
    • Linux Kernel 6.6.148
    • Linux Kernel 6.12.101
    • Linux Kernel 6.18.42
    • Linux Kernel 7.1.6
    • Linux Kernel 7.2

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: Ubuntu, Debian LTS, Msrc Update Guide, CVE.org, SUSE, BSI

    0.5 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 45.4

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    87.63 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    no public PoC known
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    0.5 %
    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    45.4
    High — this CVE ranks above the median of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 36%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    —
    Published
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: none known · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 16 October 2026
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-416

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: phonet: pep: fix use-after-free in pep_get_sb() pep_get_sb() doesn't consider that pskb_may_pull() might have relocated the skb data, and continue to access the older pointer, causing UAF. Reproduced under KASAN: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in pep_get_sb+0x234/0x3b0 Read of size 1 at addr ff11000105510f50 by task repro/157 pep_get_sb+0x234/0x3b0 pipe_handler_do_rcv+0x5f7/0xa10 pep_do_rcv+0x203/0x410 __sk_receive_skb+0x471/0x4a0 phonet_rcv+0x5b3/0x6c0 __netif_receive_skb+0xcc/0x1d0 Refetch the header with skb_header_pointer() after pskb_may_pull(), so the possibly stale pointer is no longer dereferenced. There are better ways to solve this, but, this is the less instrusive one.

    Source: Ubuntu Security Notices, Debian LTS Advisories, Microsoft Security Update Guide, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), suse_csaf, BSI WID Portal, BSI CSAF

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    LinuxLinux
    • 6.7 – < 6.12.101
    • 6.2 – < 6.6.148
    • 5.11 – < 5.15.216
    • 2.6.28 – < 5.10.265
    • 5.16 – < 6.1.183
    • 6.13 – < 6.18.42
    • —
    • 6.19 – < 7.1.6
    • 6.12.101
    • 6.6.148
    • 5.15.216
    • 5.10.265
    • 6.1.183
    • 6.18.42
    • 7.2
    • 7.1.6

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebianlinuxbookworm
    Linuxubuntulinuxnoble
    Linuxubuntulinuxresolute
    Linuxdebianlinux-6.12bookworm
    Linuxubuntulinux-awsnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-awsresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-7.0noble
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-fipsnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azurenoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azureresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-7.0noble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fdenoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fderesolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fde-7.0noble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fipsnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-fipsnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-gcpnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-gcpresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-gcp-7.0noble
    Linuxubuntulinux-gcp-fipsnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-gkenoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-gkeresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-gkeopnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-hwe-7.0noble

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-416Use After Free

      Variant

      The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-416

    References & sources

    Changes to this CVE

    Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

    1. Record modifiedCISA ADP

      Weakness type: CWE-416

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Weakness type (CWE)added
      —
      CWE-416

      Source identifier: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    2. Record modifiedLinux

      Show 16 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0f71f852a96af9685858ce59fda34ecbf85c283d
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/17f78c0c0d41d738ee236eb6e841e39395188054
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1d81e19fc57a5ee55b4497d01bc0510d76fb9578
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/25e3641beb51333bfbb155af2fd2573a61113af2
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8d931a75a38b9bb584a4071f5ebbd52755fc35ee
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a48a889b60f73edb0399a8b08284a2ab0bd0295f
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c4a52cb4da8d57d060b1d52085d25147a238dac2
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/df198743859fefba2f824115f8151dd62d7ad6d8
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0f71f852a96af9685858ce59fda34ecbf85c283d
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/17f78c0c0d41d738ee236eb6e841e39395188054
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1d81e19fc57a5ee55b4497d01bc0510d76fb9578
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/25e3641beb51333bfbb155af2fd2573a61113af2
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8d931a75a38b9bb584a4071f5ebbd52755fc35ee
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a48a889b60f73edb0399a8b08284a2ab0bd0295f
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c4a52cb4da8d57d060b1d52085d25147a238dac2
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/df198743859fefba2f824115f8151dd62d7ad6d8
      —

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    3. Record modifiedCISA ADP

      CISA assessment (SSVC): exploitation: none known, automatable: yes

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      SSVC assessmentadded
      —
      {"id":"CVE-2026-68144","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"exploitation":"none"},{"automatable":"yes"},{"technicalImpact":"total"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2026-10-16T15:44:46.818096Z"}

      Source identifier: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    4. Record modifiedLinux

      Show 4 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1d81e19fc57a5ee55b4497d01bc0510d76fb9578
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c4a52cb4da8d57d060b1d52085d25147a238dac2
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/df198743859fefba2f824115f8151dd62d7ad6d8
      Affected versions (publisher)changed
      Linux, Linux
      Linux, Linux

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    5. Record modifiedLinux

      1 individual change: Affected versions (publisher)

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Affected versions (publisher)changed
      Linux, Linux
      Linux, Linux

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    Show one older change

    1. ReceivedLinux

      Description added or changed

      Show 7 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      Linux, Linux
      Descriptionadded
      —
      In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: phonet: pep: fix use-after-free in pep_get_sb() pep_get_sb() doesn't consider that pskb_may_pull() might have relocated the skb data, and continue to access the older pointer, causing UAF. Reproduced under KASAN: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in pep_get_sb+0x234/0x3b0 Read of size 1 at addr ff11000105510f50 by task repro/157 pep_get_sb+0x234/0x3b0 pipe_handler_do_rcv+0x5f7/0xa10 pep_do_rcv+0x203/0x410 __sk_receive_skb+0x471/0x4a0 phonet_rcv+0x5b3/0x6c0 __netif_receive_skb+0xcc/0x1d0 Refetch the header with skb_header_pointer() after pskb_may_pull(), so the possibly stale pointer is no longer dereferenced. There are better ways to solve this, but, this is the less instrusive one.
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0f71f852a96af9685858ce59fda34ecbf85c283d
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/17f78c0c0d41d738ee236eb6e841e39395188054
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/25e3641beb51333bfbb155af2fd2573a61113af2
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8d931a75a38b9bb584a4071f5ebbd52755fc35ee
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a48a889b60f73edb0399a8b08284a2ab0bd0295f

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

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