Linux Kernel up to 6.12.114/6.18.58/7.2.12 printk early_initcall race condition

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.
5.3	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.114/6.18.58/7.2.12. This affects the function early_initcall of the component printk. Performing a manipulation results in race condition. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-99250. Attacking locally is a requirement. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.114/6.18.58/7.2.12. This affects the function early_initcall of the component printk. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a race condition vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-362. The product contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, and the code sequence requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence that is operating concurrently. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: printk: Postpone kthread startup There have been various bug reports related to SMP systems hanging on boot. The reports vary but seem to have some overlap with regard to missed IPI's during SMP setup. The reports also show that reverting NBCON console usage allows the bugs to disappear. The NBCON kthreads for console printing are started very early during boot using early_initcall(). Since these kthreads are asynchronously enabling/disabling interrupts during early boot, they may be interfering with early SMP setup on some hardware platforms. Starting the console printing kthreads later has shown to avoid the hanging on systems that could previously reproduce the issue. Postpone kthread starting until after all arch initcalls have completed.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-99250 since 09/25/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.12.115, 6.18.59 or 7.2.13 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch a86bcdd84c8fe7a45f73e12d53fe06fea07d1ceb/7595bacee48bc30b5021eccf199d704d4e5e5374/792acd173da0884f0172c68cb473f42cf93c647e/5f339c46f153184570f16c8e789c9709b14cbe8b is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.114
• 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
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 6.18.50
• 6.18.51
• 6.18.52
• 6.18.53
• 6.18.54
• 6.18.55
• 6.18.56
• 6.18.57
• 6.18.58
• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5
• 7.2.6
• 7.2.7
• 7.2.8
• 7.2.9
• 7.2.10
• 7.2.11
• 7.2.12

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: 5.5
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 5.3

VulDB Base Score: 5.5
VulDB Temp Score: 5.3
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

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

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

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

Exploitinginfo

Class: Race condition
CWE: CWE-362
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: No

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.12.115/6.18.59/7.2.13
Patch: a86bcdd84c8fe7a45f73e12d53fe06fea07d1ceb/7595bacee48bc30b5021eccf199d704d4e5e5374/792acd173da0884f0172c68cb473f42cf93c647e/5f339c46f153184570f16c8e789c9709b14cbe8b

Timelineinfo

09/25/2026 CVE reserved
11/03/2026 +39 days Advisory disclosed
11/03/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
11/03/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CNA: Linux
CVE: CVE-2026-99250 (🔒)

GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-99250
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-430245

Entryinfo

Created: 11/03/2026 12:46
Changes: 11/03/2026 12:46 (59)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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