Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2026-72220
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sunrpc: harden rq_procinfo lifecycle to prevent double-free The svc_release_rqst() function executes the callback inside rqstp->rq_procinfo->pc_release. However, if a worker thread begins processing a new request and encounters an early error path (e.g., unsupported protocol, short frame, or bad auth) before a valid rq_procinfo is installed, a stale release hook can be re-triggered against reused state from the previous RPC, resulting in a double-free or use-after-free vulnerability. Harden the lifecycle of rq_procinfo by: 1. Ensuring svc_release_rqst() always clears rq_procinfo after the optional pc_release() call, regardless of whether the hook exists. 2. Explicitly clearing rq_procinfo at request entry in svc_process() before any early decode or drop paths. 3. Ensuring svc_process_bc() does the same at backchannel entry. This guarantees that error flows will not encounter a non-NULL stale rq_procinfo pointer when there is nothing to release.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.006 (48.2th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 48th percentile — 48.2% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.006 · newest: 0.006 · change: +0.000
Affected products
- Linux — versions 7.2-rc1, 7.2, 6.18.40
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-72220?
- CVE-2026-72220 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-08-15.
- How severe is CVE-2026-72220?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.