Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-90046

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/page_alloc: don't spin_trylock() in NMI on UP Patch series "mm/page_alloc: fixes for free_pages_nolock() on RT/UP". Pre-existing bugs found by Sashiko during review of this other series: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260703-alloc-trylock-v5-0-c87b714e19d3@google.com/ I have not reproduced these bugs, and I suspect there is no real-world user that is affected by them. This patch (of 2): As noted in can_spin_trylock(), using this is unsafe in this context. commit 620b46ed6ae17 ("mm/page_alloc: return NULL early from alloc_frozen_pages_nolock() in NMI on UP") fixed this on the alloc side but missed the free side. Impact: If BPF programs using these features in NMI (probably tracing) are present on non-SMP builds this might crash the kernel and is probably exploitable by local attackers for privilege escalation.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (5.7th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 6th percentile — 5.7% 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-2026-90046: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

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

Affected products

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-90046?
CVE-2026-90046 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-09-16.
How severe is CVE-2026-90046?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.