MediumCVE-2026-80842

    Linux Kernel: Use-After-Free (CVE-2026-80842)

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

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    What is affected, what to do

    A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's bridge multicast (mcast) component. A race condition in the handling of a master VLAN's multicast context during teardown can allow a network attacker to trigger a use-after-free vulnerability.

    Update Linux Kernel to version 5.15.220, Linux Kernel to version 6.1.187, Linux Kernel to version 6.6.156.

    Affected
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.15..5.15.220
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.16..6.1.187
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.2..6.6.156
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.7..6.12.108
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.13..6.18.49
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.19..7.1.13
    • Linux Kernel lt 7.2..7.2.3
    Fixed in
    • Linux Kernel 5.15.220
    • Linux Kernel 6.1.187
    • Linux Kernel 6.6.156
    • Linux Kernel 6.12.108
    • Linux Kernel 6.18.49
    • Linux Kernel 7.1.13
    • Linux Kernel 7.2.3
    • Linux Kernel 7.3

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

    Metrics

    5.7

    XIEM Effective CVSS

    Highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3

    5.7

    CVSS v3

    Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: Ubuntu, HKCERT, SUSE, Debian LTS, Debian, Red Hat, EUVD, CVE.org, Msrc Update Guide, BSI

    0.2 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 7.3

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Medium
    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
    52.79 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
    5.7 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
    5.7
    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
    0.2 %
    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
    7.3
    Low — this CVE sits in the lower 10% of all CVEs scored today.
    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

    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
    Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
    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

    A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's bridge multicast (mcast) component. A race condition in the handling of a master VLAN's multicast context during teardown can allow a network attacker to trigger a use-after-free vulnerability. This could lead to system instability or a denial of service (DoS).

    Source: Ubuntu Security Notices, HKCERT (CC BY 3.0 HK) · HKCERT rating: medium, suse_csaf, Debian LTS Advisories, Debian Security Advisories, redhat_csaf, ENISA EUVD, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), CVE.org (MITRE), Microsoft Security Update Guide, 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
    • 6.13 – < 6.18.49
    • 5.15 – < 5.15.220
    • 5.16 – < 6.1.187
    • 6.7 – < 6.12.108
    • 7.2 – < 7.2.3
    • —
    • 6.19 – < 7.1.13
    • 6.2 – < 6.6.156
    • 6.18.49
    • 5.15.220
    • 6.1.187
    • 6.12.108
    • 7.2.3
    • 7.3
    • 7.1.13
    • 6.6.156
    Red HatOpenShift
    • Container Platform
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebianlinuxbookworm
    Linuxdebianlinuxtrixie
    Linuxubuntulinuxjammy
    Linuxubuntulinuxnoble
    Linuxubuntulinuxresolute
    Linuxdebianlinux-6.12bookworm
    Linuxubuntulinux-awsjammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-awsnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-awsresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-5.15focal
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-6.8jammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-7.0noble
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-fipsjammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-fipsnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azurejammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-azurenoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azureresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-5.15focal
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-6.8jammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fdejammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fdenoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fderesolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fde-5.15focal
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fde-6.8jammy

    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 modifiedLinux

      1 individual change: Affected versions (publisher)

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      Affected value modified. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/80xxx/CVE-2026-80842.json">CVE-2026-80842</a>

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

    2. ReceivedLinux

      Description added or changed

      Show 10 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Descriptionadded
      —
      In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: bridge: mcast: fix use-after-free of a master VLAN's multicast context br_multicast_toggle_one_vlan() clears BR_VLFLAG_MCAST_ENABLED under br->multicast_lock before stopping a VLAN's multicast context. That is the teardown handshake: lockless readers gate on the flag through br_multicast_ctx_should_use() -> br_multicast_ctx_vlan_disabled(), so once it is cleared under the lock no reader can arm the context again. For a master VLAN the handshake never runs. __vlan_del() clears BRIDGE_VLAN_INFO_BRENTRY before calling br_vlan_put_master(), so br_multicast_toggle_one_vlan(masterv, false) returns early on !br_vlan_is_brentry(vlan): the flag stays set and br->multicast_lock is never taken. br_vlan_put_master() then drains the context in br_multicast_ctx_deinit() and frees the VLAN through call_rcu(), while a reader still inside rcu_read_lock() sees the context as enabled and re-arms it. The port and port-VLAN branch of the function has no br_vlan_is_brentry() test and flips the flag under br->multicast_lock, so it is not affected. The reader is the bridge transmit path. For a master VLAN br_multicast_rcv() selects brmctx = &vlan->br_mcast_ctx with pmctx = NULL, so IGMP sent to the bridge device re-arms the context's timers after br_multicast_ctx_deinit() has already stopped them. BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in detach_if_pending+0x412/0x4a0 Write of size 8 at addr ffff88810ac39918 by task brmc/601 __mod_timer+0x51a/0xc50 br_multicast_host_join+0x25b/0x390 __br_multicast_add_group+0x468/0x530 br_ip4_multicast_add_group+0x1a0/0x260 br_multicast_rcv+0x2cda/0x61e0 br_dev_xmit+0x6c4/0x1540 Allocated by task 610: br_vlan_add+0x111/0xb40 br_vlan_info+0x370/0x3e0 Freed by task 0: kfree+0x1a7/0x4f0 rcu_core+0x7dc/0x10a0 Only test br_vlan_is_brentry() when enabling, like the br_multicast_ctx_vlan_global_disabled() test next to it. Disabling then always clears BR_VLFLAG_MCAST_ENABLED under br->multicast_lock before br_multicast_ctx_deinit() drains the context.
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/80xxx/CVE-2026-80842.json">CVE-2026-80842</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22226a2c3b90f15b0925f1464470d3baa6c5677e
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3a0ad4fcdfa0b7dba1876de14a12cb65c8b5ca50
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3afaaee2f972aec9059110953adb62fa3cf5c4bd
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3f4752996735e0628af559aa8da1d872c2fac13b
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/50e5c6605cc9c2dd57bd2d1b3459674d19738983
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/57f94d3f4dee8b54d63cefddf1112be4656ef9e6
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7c54fd8cfbcf371a5ef50db5c53fe6e85fb76686
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c069f29da72324697aa4b7cab5b3647a7d24a575

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

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