Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-72426

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Preserve pointer spill metadata during half-slot cleanup __clean_func_state() cleans dead stack slots in 4-byte halves. When the high half of a STACK_SPILL slot is dead and the low half remains live, cleanup converts the live low half to STACK_MISC or STACK_ZERO and clears the saved spilled_ptr metadata. That conversion is safe only for scalar spills. For a pointer spill, this metadata clear lets a later 32-bit fill from the still-live half avoid the normal non-scalar register-fill check and be treated as an ordinary scalar stack read. Leave non-scalar spill slots intact in this half-live shape. This is conservative for pruning and preserves the existing check_stack_read_fixed_off() rejection path for partial fills from pointer spills.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.4 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (6.7th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 7th percentile — 6.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-72426: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: 0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 7.2-rc1, 7.2, be23266b4a08540aa43d8503a2ea10247c8daebe

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-72426?
CVE-2026-72426 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 8.4/10. Published 2026-08-15.
How severe is CVE-2026-72426?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.4 out of 10.