CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2026-52968NVD status: Modified

Linux: Out-of-bounds Read

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2026-52968 is a high-severity out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Linux, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.1 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 31a9d9f9942885aae356a1a57c79e82c5b5b0828, a99a25db131ece5e6c0f7632da606de631efe4f2, 11b8ff5b930b351dd1f6f088dce0beb027ac92d0 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 0.18% 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 31a9d9f9942885aae356a1a57c79e82c5b5b0828 or a99a25db131ece5e6c0f7632da606de631efe4f2 or 11b8ff5b930b351dd1f6f088dce0beb027ac92d0 or b22a2da8792a7bfe743c1a922e77fa499ddedbe8, whichever matches your release line, or a later version.
  2. Update Linux Kernel to 6.1.175 or 6.6.141 or 6.12.91 or 6.18.33, whichever matches your release line, or a later version.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
LinuxLinux73f91b004321f2510fa79e66035dbbf1870fcf56 up to, but not including, 31a9d9f9942885aae356a1a57c79e82c5b5b0828; 73f91b004321f2510fa79e66035dbbf1870fcf56 up to, but not including, a99a25db131ece5e6c0f7632da606de631efe4f2; 73f91b004321f2510fa79e66035dbbf1870fcf56 up to, but not including, 11b8ff5b930b351dd1f6f088dce0beb027ac92d0; 73f91b004321f2510fa79e66035dbbf1870fcf56 up to, but not including, b22a2da8792a7bfe743c1a922e77fa499ddedbe8; 73f91b004321f2510fa79e66035dbbf1870fcf56 up to, but not including, e7216651b94e92e5433fb2f54b77864642b4ea48; 73f91b004321f2510fa79e66035dbbf1870fcf56 up to, but not including, 16d990a15491cf76cd6eef0846e1b4100e63261a; 6.031a9d9f9942885aae356a1a57c79e82c5b5b0828, a99a25db131ece5e6c0f7632da606de631efe4f2, 11b8ff5b930b351dd1f6f088dce0beb027ac92d0, b22a2da8792a7bfe743c1a922e77fa499ddedbe8, e7216651b94e92e5433fb2f54b77864642b4ea48, 16d990a15491cf76cd6eef0846e1b4100e63261a
LinuxLinux Kernel6.0 up to, but not including, 6.1.175; 6.2 up to, but not including, 6.6.141; 6.7 up to, but not including, 6.12.91; 6.13 up to, but not including, 6.18.33; 6.19 up to, but not including, 7.0.10; 7.16.1.175, 6.6.141, 6.12.91, 6.18.33, 7.0.10

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
NoneNothing can be modified.
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:N/A:H. Scored by NVD.

Scoring systemScoreSeverityScored by
CVSS 3.18.8HighCNA
CVSS 3.17.1HighNVD

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: s390: pci: fix GAIT table indexing due to double-scaling pointer arithmetic kvm_s390_pci_aif_enable(), kvm_s390_pci_aif_disable(), and aen_host_forward() index the GAIT by manually multiplying the index with sizeof(struct zpci_gaite). Since aift->gait is already a struct zpci_gaite pointer, this double-scales the offset, accessing element aisb*16 instead of aisb. This causes out-of-bounds accesses when aisb >= 32 (with ZPCI_NR_DEVICES=512) Fix by removing the erroneous sizeof multiplication.

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

The underlying weakness: Out-of-bounds Read

The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Use a language that provides appropriate memory abstractions.

More Out-of-bounds Read vulnerabilities (CWE-125)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Recent Out-of-bounds Read vulnerabilities

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