VulnerabilityPublished 6 May 2026Updated 19 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-43280: Linux kernel · Out-of-bounds Read

Affects Linux kernelSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.1 High · fixed in ffba51100ff61792fefbae11ca38ac1987a818dd : patch Linux kernel soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:30 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.1High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS

0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 1% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

Exploitation: No evidence of active exploitation and no public proof of concept
Automatable: Attackers cannot reliably automate steps 1–4 of the kill chain
Technical impact: Limited control over the software or limited information exposure

CISA SSVC assessment, 2026-10-16.

Patch

Available – fixed in ffba51100ff61792fefbae11ca38ac1987a818dd, fbbe32618e97eff81577a01eb7d9adcd64a216d7, 79f52655567a6471ff3d0d6325ede91bb14461f4

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 6 May 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade Linux kernel to ffba51100ff61792fefbae11ca38ac1987a818dd, fbbe32618e97eff81577a01eb7d9adcd64a216d7 or 79f52655567a6471ff3d0d6325ede91bb14461f4.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ ada7486c5668db542a7d361268df931aca5b726a, < ffba51100ff61792fefbae11ca38ac1987a818dd	Fixed in ffba51100ff61792fefbae11ca38ac1987a818dd
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ ada7486c5668db542a7d361268df931aca5b726a, < fbbe32618e97eff81577a01eb7d9adcd64a216d7	Fixed in fbbe32618e97eff81577a01eb7d9adcd64a216d7
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ ada7486c5668db542a7d361268df931aca5b726a, < 79f52655567a6471ff3d0d6325ede91bb14461f4	Fixed in 79f52655567a6471ff3d0d6325ede91bb14461f4
LinuxLinux	Affected =6.18	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

The vulnerability has been fixed in the Linux kernel by commits ffba51100ff61792fefbae11ca38ac1987a818dd, fbbe32618e97eff81577a01eb7d9adcd64a216d7, and 79f52655567a6471ff3d0d6325ede91bb14461f4. Users and administrators should update to a Linux kernel version that includes these fixes. No additional mitigations are indicated by the vendor advisory. Since this is a local vulnerability, restricting access to the affected IOCTL interface can reduce risk until patching is applied.

Description

CVE-2026-43280 is a high-severity vulnerability in the Linux kernel affecting version 6.18. It involves an out-of-bounds (OOB) kernel read caused by missing bounds checking on the pat_index parameter in the madvise IOCTL call within the drm/xe driver. This flaw allows a malicious user with limited privileges to trigger an OOB read from an internal array, potentially leading to information disclosure and denial of service. The issue has been fixed in specific commits addressing the unsafe array access and adding mitigations against speculative execution attacks.

Impact

A local attacker with the ability to invoke the madvise IOCTL on the drm/xe driver can cause an out-of-bounds kernel read, potentially leaking sensitive kernel memory contents. The CVSS score of 7.1 (high) reflects the impact on confidentiality and availability, with no integrity impact. The flaw could lead to information disclosure and denial of service conditions but does not allow privilege escalation directly. No known exploits in the wild have been reported.

Summary

The vulnerability CVE-2026-43280 exists in the Linux kernel's drm/xe driver, specifically in the madvise IOCTL interface. The function xe_pat_index_get_coh_mode() accesses an array element using a user-supplied pat_index without validating that the index is within valid bounds. Although debug builds include a WARN_ON to detect out-of-bounds access, production kernels perform the unsafe access regardless. This results in an out-of-bounds kernel read from the xe->pat.table array. The root cause is that madvise_args_are_sane() calls xe_pat_index_get_coh_mode() without first verifying that pat_index is within the valid range [0, xe->pat.n_entries). Subsequent patches introduced the use of array_index_nospec() to mitigate Spectre attacks and reorganized code declarations. The vulnerability is fixed in the Linux kernel commits identified by hashes ffba51100ff61792fefbae11ca38ac1987a818dd, fbbe32618e97eff81577a01eb7d9adcd64a216d7, and 79f52655567a6471ff3d0d6325ede91bb14461f4.

CWE-125Out-of-bounds Read (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessCWE Top 25 (2025): #8
The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
Architecture and Design · Language Selection
Use a language that provides appropriate memory abstractions.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.3 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Overread Buffers (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Oct 2026, 14:33 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-125

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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