CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2026-45916NVD status: Undergoing Analysis

Linux: Use After Free

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2026-45916 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 out of 10. It can be exploited with local access to the system by an attacker with a low-privileged account, without any action from a user. The record lists versions ca7dd71773e4e050b0fb98768b7eae60f8d1f38b, f1f472b14ad56104ba228b8fbec60d5b21829913, 8010b745b436c3e1ca5dd960aa29fa3e0f6d8841 as the first without the flaw, so updating Linux to one of those releases or later removes the exposure. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.16% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Update Linux to ca7dd71773e4e050b0fb98768b7eae60f8d1f38b or f1f472b14ad56104ba228b8fbec60d5b21829913 or 8010b745b436c3e1ca5dd960aa29fa3e0f6d8841 or 2078830c32d1e49ac942c6f8c21f35c806ae5e94, whichever matches your release line, or a later version.
  2. Update Linux Kernel to 5.10.252 or 5.15.202 or 6.1.165 or 6.6.128, whichever matches your release line, or a later version.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
LinuxLinuxd2cec82c28802da31596b395ad292cb8f132fd63 up to, but not including, ca7dd71773e4e050b0fb98768b7eae60f8d1f38b; d2cec82c28802da31596b395ad292cb8f132fd63 up to, but not including, f1f472b14ad56104ba228b8fbec60d5b21829913; d2cec82c28802da31596b395ad292cb8f132fd63 up to, but not including, 8010b745b436c3e1ca5dd960aa29fa3e0f6d8841; d2cec82c28802da31596b395ad292cb8f132fd63 up to, but not including, 2078830c32d1e49ac942c6f8c21f35c806ae5e94; d2cec82c28802da31596b395ad292cb8f132fd63 up to, but not including, 82d3eb97a976c9d56bb92b241397610e57a9c629; d2cec82c28802da31596b395ad292cb8f132fd63 up to, but not including, 861dda7a9074c0ff67788928165ae39d7f647491; d2cec82c28802da31596b395ad292cb8f132fd63 up to, but not including, 14d4dee5d8fb361bfff275832087254beab66d72; d2cec82c28802da31596b395ad292cb8f132fd63 up to, but not including, 8d59cf3887fbabacef53bfba473e33e8a8d9d07b; and 1 more rangesca7dd71773e4e050b0fb98768b7eae60f8d1f38b, f1f472b14ad56104ba228b8fbec60d5b21829913, 8010b745b436c3e1ca5dd960aa29fa3e0f6d8841, 2078830c32d1e49ac942c6f8c21f35c806ae5e94, 82d3eb97a976c9d56bb92b241397610e57a9c629, 861dda7a9074c0ff67788928165ae39d7f647491
LinuxLinux Kernel4.9 up to, but not including, 5.10.252; 5.11 up to, but not including, 5.15.202; 5.16 up to, but not including, 6.1.165; 6.2 up to, but not including, 6.6.128; 6.7 up to, but not including, 6.12.75; 6.13 up to, but not including, 6.18.14; 6.19 up to, but not including, 6.19.45.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.14

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
LocalThe attacker needs local access or must trick a user into running something.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
LowA basic user account is enough.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by NVD.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: power: supply: sbs-battery: Fix use-after-free in power_supply_changed() Using the `devm_` variant for requesting IRQ _before_ the `devm_` variant for allocating/registering the `power_supply` handle, means that the `power_supply` handle will be deallocated/unregistered _before_ the interrupt handler (since `devm_` naturally deallocates in reverse allocation order). This means that during removal, there is a race condition where an interrupt can fire just _after_ the `power_supply` handle has been freed, *but* just _before_ the corresponding unregistration of the IRQ handler has run. This will lead to the IRQ handler calling `power_supply_changed()` with a freed `power_supply` handle. Which usually crashes the system or otherwise silently corrupts the memory... Note that there is a similar situation which can also happen during `probe()`; the possibility of an interrupt firing _before_ registering the `power_supply` handle. This would then lead to the nasty situation of using the `power_supply` handle *uninitialized* in `power_supply_changed()`. Fix this racy use-after-free by making sure the IRQ is requested _after_ the registration of the `power_supply` handle. Keep the old behavior of just printing a warning in case of any failures during the IRQ request and finishing the probe successfully.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Use After Free

The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory belongs to the code that operates on the new pointer.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Choose a language that provides automatic memory management.
  • When freeing pointers, be sure to set them to NULL once they are freed. However, the utilization of multiple or complex data structures may lower the usefulness of this strategy.

More Use After Free vulnerabilities (CWE-416)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Recent Use After Free vulnerabilities

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