CVE-2026-99158
Description
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ring buffer component. When a reader process accessing memory-mapped trace data catches up with a concurrent writer still committing events, the kernel incorrectly treats the temporary absence of data as an error and triggers a kernel warning. A local user could trigger this condition during simultaneous read and write operations, potentially causing a Denial of Service (DoS) on systems configured to panic on kernel warnings.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as having Moderate impact because exploitation requires local administrative privileges to interact with kernel tracing and service disruption occurs only on hosts explicitly set to treat warnings as fatal kernel panics. In standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux configurations, warning events do not crash the operating system, so a race between concurrent trace reading and writing generates a non-fatal diagnostic report. As a result, unprivileged users cannot exploit this behavior to cause a system outage or compromise system confidentiality or integrity.
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 | 4.1 | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | N/A | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | N/A |
| Privileges Required | High | N/A | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
While assertion is good for catching logic errors and reducing the chances of reaching more serious vulnerability conditions, an attacker can still cause a denial of service if they can trigger an assert statement, and if the scope of the assert() extends beyond the attacker's own session. For example, if a server handles multiple simultaneous connections, if an assert() occurs in one single connection that causes all other connections to be dropped, this could be a significant denial of service.
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