Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.16/6.19.6/7.0-rc2. The affected element is an unknown function of the component net. Executing a manipulation can lead to an unknown weakness. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-23302. No exploit exists. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.16/6.19.6/7.0-rc2. This vulnerability affects an unknown part of the component net. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: annotate data-races around sk->sk_{data_ready,write_space} skmsg (and probably other layers) are changing these pointers while other cpus might read them concurrently. Add corresponding READ_ONCE()/WRITE_ONCE() annotations for UDP, TCP and AF_UNIX.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-23302 since 01/13/2026. The exploitation appears to be difficult. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not available. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 03/30/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 303731 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-23302), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.18.17, 6.19.7 or 7.0-rc3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch f17c1c4acbe2bd702abce73a847a04a196fab2c5/27fccdbcbbfc4651b6f66756e6fa3f52e051ec23/2ef2b20cf4e04ac8a6ba68493f8780776ff84300 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (303731) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0861). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 7.0-rc1
• 7.0-rc2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Discussion