MediumCVE-2026-99163

    Linux Kernel: security vulnerability (CVE-2026-99163)

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

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    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing/histograms: Reject non-stacktrace fields for synthetic stacktrace fields In check_synth_field(), when a synthetic event field is a stacktrace (field->is_stack) and the histogram field is not a "long[" stacktrace array, validation falls through to the generic size and signedness comparison. Because parse_synth_field() sets a stacktrace field's type to "__data_loc unsigned long[]", its size is sizeof(u64) and synth_field_signed() marks it as signed.

    Update Linux Kernel to version 5.10.273, Linux Kernel to version 5.15.224, Linux Kernel to version 6.1.191.

    Affected
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.10.237..5.10.273
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.15.124..5.15.224
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.1.43..6.1.191
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.3..6.6.161
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.7..6.12.115
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.13..6.18.59
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.19..7.2.13
    Fixed in
    • Linux Kernel 5.10.273
    • Linux Kernel 5.15.224
    • Linux Kernel 6.1.191
    • Linux Kernel 6.6.161
    • Linux Kernel 6.12.115
    • Linux Kernel 6.18.59
    • Linux Kernel 7.2.13
    • Linux Kernel 7.3

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

    Metrics

    5.5

    Priority

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

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3

    5.5

    CVSS v3

    Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: Debian, BSI, Msrc Update Guide, CVE.org

    0.1 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 2.9

    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
    57.57 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
    5.5 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
    5.5
    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
    0.1 %
    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
    2.9
    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

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing/histograms: Reject non-stacktrace fields for synthetic stacktrace fields In check_synth_field(), when a synthetic event field is a stacktrace (field->is_stack) and the histogram field is not a "long[" stacktrace array, validation falls through to the generic size and signedness comparison. Because parse_synth_field() sets a stacktrace field's type to "__data_loc unsigned long[]", its size is sizeof(u64) and synth_field_signed() marks it as signed. Consequently, any 8-byte signed scalar histogram field passes the fallback check, and its scalar value is subsequently dereferenced as a kernel stacktrace pointer in get_field_size() and trace_stack(). Furthermore, checking strstr(hist_field->type, "long[") is insufficient because tracepoint fields defined with __bitmask() or __rel_bitmask() also have type "__data_loc unsigned long[]" or "__rel_loc unsigned long[]", whilst create_hist_field() treats them as 4-byte scalar values without HIST_FIELD_FL_STACKTRACE. Propagate HIST_FIELD_FL_STACKTRACE to variable references and field variables (whilst excluding variable aliases from per-element stacktrace capture), and reject any mismatch between HIST_FIELD_FL_STACKTRACE and field->is_stack in check_synth_field().

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

    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 – < 6.12.115
    • 5.10.237 – < 5.10.273
    • 6.19 – < 7.2.13
    • 5.15.124 – < 5.15.224
    • 6.13 – < 6.18.59
    • —
    • 6.3 – < 6.6.161
    • 6.1.43 – < 6.1.191
    • 6.12.115
    • 5.10.273
    • 7.2.13
    • 5.15.224
    • 6.18.59
    • 7.3
    • 6.6.161
    • 6.1.191

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebianlinuxtrixie

    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

      CVSS V3.1: AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      CVSSadded
      —
      AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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

    2. Record modifiedLinux

      Show 6 original changes
      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/2026/99xxx/CVE-2026-99163.json">CVE-2026-99163</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/326c45c9e201e3ff4c9e9e0e14c2c91364d6c8be
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/648687f2b448d8527cd7b112fe5d4bd0fec85a87
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6c4e4946febb585d2fc93a02a0cd12cec715bb32
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e0d05a6234a984ac23b8a563fb7f66f2572b668
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/eba0a6365a0f38f7598a02fc7f9ee341c7efe7f5

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

    3. ReceivedLinux

      Description added or changed

      Show 5 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Descriptionadded
      —
      In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing/histograms: Reject non-stacktrace fields for synthetic stacktrace fields In check_synth_field(), when a synthetic event field is a stacktrace (field->is_stack) and the histogram field is not a "long[" stacktrace array, validation falls through to the generic size and signedness comparison. Because parse_synth_field() sets a stacktrace field's type to "__data_loc unsigned long[]", its size is sizeof(u64) and synth_field_signed() marks it as signed. Consequently, any 8-byte signed scalar histogram field passes the fallback check, and its scalar value is subsequently dereferenced as a kernel stacktrace pointer in get_field_size() and trace_stack(). Furthermore, checking strstr(hist_field->type, "long[") is insufficient because tracepoint fields defined with __bitmask() or __rel_bitmask() also have type "__data_loc unsigned long[]" or "__rel_loc unsigned long[]", whilst create_hist_field() treats them as 4-byte scalar values without HIST_FIELD_FL_STACKTRACE. Propagate HIST_FIELD_FL_STACKTRACE to variable references and field variables (whilst excluding variable aliases from per-element stacktrace capture), and reject any mismatch between HIST_FIELD_FL_STACKTRACE and field->is_stack in check_synth_field().
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/99xxx/CVE-2026-99163.json">CVE-2026-99163</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1f36e4ddd05d540f363dbaa4c23042549f15b3ef
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a244c241593b5b38a08f0df2cb43c26574efbdcb
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/deb336ae7c7b341591a6862cf6fcfeca97c77dfd

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

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