CriticalCVE-2026-68160

    Linux Kernel: Out-of-bounds Read (CVE-2026-68160)

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

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    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ceph: fix pre-auth out-of-bounds read on snaptrace in ceph_handle_caps() ceph_handle_caps() reads snap_trace_len from the wire-format ceph_mds_caps header and uses it unconditionally to build a fake end pointer (snaptrace + snaptrace_len) that is later handed to ceph_update_snap_trace() in the CEPH_CAP_OP_IMPORT case: snaptrace = h + 1; snaptrace_len = le32_to_cpu(h->snap_trace_len); p = snaptrace + snaptrace_len; ... case CEPH_CAP_OP_IMPORT: if (snaptrace_len) { ... if (ceph_update_snap_trace(mdsc, snaptrace, snaptrace + snaptrace_len, false, &realm)) { ... } ceph_update_snap_trace() then decodes a struct ceph_mds_snap_realm from snaptrace using ceph_decode_need(&p, e, sizeof(*ri), bad) with the attacker-supplied fake end e == snaptrace + snaptrace_len. With snaptrace_len == 0xFFFFFFFF the bound check is trivially satisfied, ri = p reads sizeof(struct ceph_mds_snap_realm) past the legitimate msg->front buffer, and ri->num_snaps / ri->num_prior_parent_snaps then drive further out-of-bounds reads of the encoded snap arrays.

    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 2.6.34..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

    9.1

    Priority

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

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3

    9.1

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

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

    0.8 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 55.8

    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
    92.57 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
    9.1 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
    9.1
    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
    0.8 %
    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
    55.8
    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-125

    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: ceph: fix pre-auth out-of-bounds read on snaptrace in ceph_handle_caps() ceph_handle_caps() reads snap_trace_len from the wire-format ceph_mds_caps header and uses it unconditionally to build a fake end pointer (snaptrace + snaptrace_len) that is later handed to ceph_update_snap_trace() in the CEPH_CAP_OP_IMPORT case: snaptrace = h + 1; snaptrace_len = le32_to_cpu(h->snap_trace_len); p = snaptrace + snaptrace_len; ... case CEPH_CAP_OP_IMPORT: if (snaptrace_len) { ... if (ceph_update_snap_trace(mdsc, snaptrace, snaptrace + snaptrace_len, false, &realm)) { ... } ceph_update_snap_trace() then decodes a struct ceph_mds_snap_realm from snaptrace using ceph_decode_need(&p, e, sizeof(*ri), bad) with the attacker-supplied fake end e == snaptrace + snaptrace_len. With snaptrace_len == 0xFFFFFFFF the bound check is trivially satisfied, ri = p reads sizeof(struct ceph_mds_snap_realm) past the legitimate msg->front buffer, and ri->num_snaps / ri->num_prior_parent_snaps then drive further out-of-bounds reads of the encoded snap arrays. The eleven msg_version >= 2 .. msg_version >= 12 decoder blocks above the op switch each catch this OOB through their ceph_decode_*_safe() / ceph_decode_need() helpers, but they sit behind a hdr.version-gated if, so a malicious or compromised MDS that sets msg->hdr.version = 1 reaches the IMPORT path with no version-gated decoder having validated snap_trace_len. The shape has been present since ceph_handle_caps() was introduced. Validate snap_trace_len against the message front buffer before consuming it, using the canonical ceph_decode_need() / ceph_has_room() helper. The helper bounds the length with subtraction (n <= end - p, guarded by end >= p) rather than pointer addition, so it is wrap-safe for the attacker-controlled u32 length on 32-bit builds where p + snap_trace_len could overflow the address space. This matches the rest of the ceph decode path (e.g. the pool_ns_len check a few lines below), and the existing goto bad cleanup already covers this exit path.

    Source: suse_csaf, Ubuntu Security Notices, Debian LTS Advisories, Microsoft Security Update Guide, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), 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
    • 2.6.34 – < 5.10.265
    • 6.2 – < 6.6.148
    • 5.11 – < 5.15.216
    • 5.16 – < 6.1.183
    • 6.13 – < 6.18.42
    • —
    • 6.19 – < 7.1.6
    • 6.12.101
    • 5.10.265
    • 6.6.148
    • 5.15.216
    • 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-125Out-of-bounds Read

      Base

      The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-125

    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-125

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Weakness type (CWE)added
      —
      CWE-125

      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/03b417afce19ee6b6e61f1bbbbebac924c9f36d1
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0c011137194036424e974677e0f1592e22a33d8c
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4dbc71bcaf9a30abf3920a4e2cc4ed33bba78c02
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/71893c342a26bcff92eaab0b2b75d64aed19308a
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9081c71796724ffe96cba253f68fbe42363c5295
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a4228b93706fb74a484e6ffb271c1cc2af3a2ddb
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cc93f68a31c9b831abf2db8647b5f5b10329d793
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f913192fc782288e060dafc329b2346934be34cc
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/03b417afce19ee6b6e61f1bbbbebac924c9f36d1
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0c011137194036424e974677e0f1592e22a33d8c
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4dbc71bcaf9a30abf3920a4e2cc4ed33bba78c02
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/71893c342a26bcff92eaab0b2b75d64aed19308a
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9081c71796724ffe96cba253f68fbe42363c5295
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a4228b93706fb74a484e6ffb271c1cc2af3a2ddb
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cc93f68a31c9b831abf2db8647b5f5b10329d793
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f913192fc782288e060dafc329b2346934be34cc
      —

      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-2026-68160","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"exploitation":"none"},{"automatable":"yes"},{"technicalImpact":"total"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2026-10-16T15:45:20.340785Z"}

      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/0c011137194036424e974677e0f1592e22a33d8c
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cc93f68a31c9b831abf2db8647b5f5b10329d793
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f913192fc782288e060dafc329b2346934be34cc
      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: ceph: fix pre-auth out-of-bounds read on snaptrace in ceph_handle_caps() ceph_handle_caps() reads snap_trace_len from the wire-format ceph_mds_caps header and uses it unconditionally to build a fake end pointer (snaptrace + snaptrace_len) that is later handed to ceph_update_snap_trace() in the CEPH_CAP_OP_IMPORT case: snaptrace = h + 1; snaptrace_len = le32_to_cpu(h->snap_trace_len); p = snaptrace + snaptrace_len; ... case CEPH_CAP_OP_IMPORT: if (snaptrace_len) { ... if (ceph_update_snap_trace(mdsc, snaptrace, snaptrace + snaptrace_len, false, &realm)) { ... } ceph_update_snap_trace() then decodes a struct ceph_mds_snap_realm from snaptrace using ceph_decode_need(&p, e, sizeof(*ri), bad) with the attacker-supplied fake end e == snaptrace + snaptrace_len. With snaptrace_len == 0xFFFFFFFF the bound check is trivially satisfied, ri = p reads sizeof(struct ceph_mds_snap_realm) past the legitimate msg->front buffer, and ri->num_snaps / ri->num_prior_parent_snaps then drive further out-of-bounds reads of the encoded snap arrays. The eleven msg_version >= 2 .. msg_version >= 12 decoder blocks above the op switch each catch this OOB through their ceph_decode_*_safe() / ceph_decode_need() helpers, but they sit behind a hdr.version-gated if, so a malicious or compromised MDS that sets msg->hdr.version = 1 reaches the IMPORT path with no version-gated decoder having validated snap_trace_len. The shape has been present since ceph_handle_caps() was introduced. Validate snap_trace_len against the message front buffer before consuming it, using the canonical ceph_decode_need() / ceph_has_room() helper. The helper bounds the length with subtraction (n <= end - p, guarded by end >= p) rather than pointer addition, so it is wrap-safe for the attacker-controlled u32 length on 32-bit builds where p + snap_trace_len could overflow the address space. This matches the rest of the ceph decode path (e.g. the pool_ns_len check a few lines below), and the existing goto bad cleanup already covers this exit path.
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/03b417afce19ee6b6e61f1bbbbebac924c9f36d1
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4dbc71bcaf9a30abf3920a4e2cc4ed33bba78c02
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/71893c342a26bcff92eaab0b2b75d64aed19308a
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9081c71796724ffe96cba253f68fbe42363c5295
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a4228b93706fb74a484e6ffb271c1cc2af3a2ddb

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

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