VDB-365007 · CVE-2026-43499 · Nessus 316510

Linux Kernel up to 6.6.139/6.12.85/6.18.26/7.0.3 rtmutex remove_waiter use after free

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
7.7	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.139/6.12.85/6.18.26/7.0.3. Impacted is the function remove_waiter of the component rtmutex. Performing a manipulation results in use after free. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2026-43499. No exploit exists. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.139/6.12.85/6.18.26/7.0.3. This affects the function remove_waiter of the component rtmutex. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: rtmutex: Use waiter::task instead of current in remove_waiter() remove_waiter() is used by the slowlock paths, but it is also used for proxy-lock rollback in rt_mutex_start_proxy_lock() when invoked from futex_requeue(). In the latter case waiter::task is not current, but remove_waiter() operates on current for the dequeue operation. That results in several problems: 1) the rbtree dequeue happens without waiter::task::pi_lock being held 2) the waiter task's pi_blocked_on state is not cleared, which leaves a dangling pointer primed for UAF around. 3) rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain() operates on the wrong top priority waiter task Use waiter::task instead of current in all related operations in remove_waiter() to cure those problems. [ tglx: Fixup rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain(), add a comment and amend the changelog ]

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-43499 since 05/01/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/09/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 316510 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-43499), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.140, 6.12.86, 6.18.27, 7.0.4 or 7.1-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 8a1fc8d698ac5e5916e3082a0f74450d71f9611f/6d52dfcb2a5db86e346cf51f8fcf2071b8085166/3fb7394a837740770f0d6b4b30567e60786a63f2/88614876370aac8ad1050ad785a4c095ba17ac11/3bfdc63936dd4773109b7b8c280c0f3b5ae7d349 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 (316510) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1656). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

Google Container-Optimized OS
Debian Linux
Amazon Linux 2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Ubuntu Linux
SUSE Linux
Oracle Linux
SUSE openSUSE
RESF Rocky Linux
Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

Operating System

Vendor

Linux

Name

Kernel

Version

License

open-source

Website

Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 7.9
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 7.7

VulDB Base Score: 8.0
VulDB Temp Score: 7.6
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CNA Base Score: 7.8
CNA Vector (Linux): 🔒

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Use after free
CWE: CWE-416 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒