Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-74434

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: rxrpc: Don't move a peeked OOB message onto the pending queue rxrpc_recvmsg_oob() takes a received oob message off recvmsg_oobq and, if a response is needed, moves it onto the pending_oobq tree. However, only the unlink from recvmsg_oobq is guarded by MSG_PEEK; the move onto pending_oobq always runs. As a result, reading a challenge with MSG_PEEK leaves the skb on recvmsg_oobq while also adding it to pending_oobq. Since struct sk_buff's rbnode shares storage with its next and prev pointers, rb_insert_color() overwrites the list linkage, and the skb, which holds a single reference, becomes reachable from both queues at once. When the socket is closed both queues are drained in turn. While draining recvmsg_oobq, __skb_unlink() follows the next and prev pointers that rbnode has overwritten and writes to a bad address. Also, as the skb holds a single reference but is freed from each queue, both the skb and the connection reference it holds are released twice. This leads to memory corruption and to a use-after-free caused by the connection refcount underflow. MSG_PEEK does not consume the message from the queue, so only unlink it from recvmsg_oobq and then move it onto pending_oobq or free it when the message is actually consumed.

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 trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-74434: held from 0.003 to 0.006.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.006 · change: +0.003

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 7.2-rc1, 6.16, 7.2

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-74434?
CVE-2026-74434 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-08-15.
How severe is CVE-2026-74434?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.