CVE-2026-53129
Description
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's mbcache component. This vulnerability allows a local, privileged user to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) through a system crash. The issue occurs due to a race condition where background cache cleanup tasks are not canceled before destroying the cache during filesystem teardown, leading to a use-after-free condition when accessing freed memory.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as having a Moderate impact for Red Hat Enterprise Linux because exploitation requires local access and elevated administrative privileges (such as CAP_SYS_ADMIN) to trigger teardown of an affected filesystem, limiting the risk primarily to a local denial of service. The underlying race condition occurs during filesystem unmount operations when background cache cleanup routines remain active, potentially inducing a kernel crash. Because unprivileged users cannot dismount ext2, ext4, or ocfs2 volumes under standard configurations, systems are primarily exposed only during administrative storage maintenance.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.5 | 7.8 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | High | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | High | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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