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Linux Kernel CVE-2026-81001

| EUVDEUVD-2026-76324 HIGH
2026-09-11 Linux GHSA-pxg4-rg6h-vm8p
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Linux
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Severity by source

Vendor (Linux) PRIMARY
7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
7.0 HIGH

Race condition requires winning a timing window between concurrent SLIP open/close operations, warranting AC:H over the vendor-assigned AC:L; low-privilege local TTY access is the required entry point.

3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).

CVSS VectorVendor: Linux

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

Lifecycle Timeline

6
Metadata Corrected
Sep 13, 2026 - 08:40 vuln.today
tag: Information Disclosure removed
Analysis Generated
Sep 13, 2026 - 07:42 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Sep 13, 2026 - 07:22 NVD
7.8 (HIGH)
Patch available
Sep 11, 2026 - 21:18 EUVD
CVE Published
Sep 11, 2026 - 19:42 cve.org
HIGH 7.8
CVE Published
Sep 11, 2026 - 19:42 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

slip: fix use-after-free in sl_sync()

slip_devs[] stores bare net_device pointers and takes no reference on them. sl_sync() and sl_alloc() walk that table from slip_open() under rtnl_lock(), while an entry is dropped by sl_free_netdev(), which sl_setup() installs as dev->priv_destructor.

priv_destructor is called from netdev_run_todo(), which deliberately runs with the RTNL semaphore released so that it can sleep while waiting for the device refcount to drop:

/* Snapshot list, allow later requests */ list_replace_init(&net_todo_list, &list);

__rtnl_unlock(); ... if (dev->priv_destructor) dev->priv_destructor(dev); /* slip_devs[i] = NULL */ if (dev->needs_free_netdev) free_netdev(dev); ... /* Free network device */ kobject_put(&dev->dev.kobj);

So rtnl_lock() does not serialise slip_open() against the teardown at all. sl_sync() can load slip_devs[i] while the entry is still published and dereference it after netdev_run_todo() has run the destructor and released the device:

CPU0 (slip_open) CPU1 (slip_close) unregister_netdev() rtnl_unlock() netdev_run_todo() __rtnl_unlock() rtnl_lock() sl_sync() dev = slip_devs[i] priv_destructor(dev) slip_devs[i] = NULL kobject_put(&dev->dev.kobj) /* dev is freed */ sl = netdev_priv(dev) if (sl->tty || sl->leased) /* use-after-free */

BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in sl_sync drivers/net/slip/slip.c:730 [inline] BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in slip_open+0xef4/0x1210 drivers/net/slip/slip.c:806 Read of size 1 at addr ffff8880712dac71 by task syz-executor.2/6506

CPU: 2 PID: 6506 Comm: syz-executor.2 Not tainted 6.1.134-syzkaller-00260-g0c8fc3469765 #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.12.0-1 04/01/2014 Call Trace: sl_sync drivers/net/slip/slip.c:730 [inline] slip_open+0xef4/0x1210 drivers/net/slip/slip.c:806 tty_ldisc_open+0xa2/0x120 drivers/tty/tty_ldisc.c:433 tty_set_ldisc+0x324/0x720 drivers/tty/tty_ldisc.c:564 tiocsetd drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2428 [inline] tty_ioctl+0x5f0/0x1530 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2712

Allocated by task 6502: alloc_netdev_mqs+0x98/0xfe0 net/core/dev.c:10719 sl_alloc drivers/net/slip/slip.c:756 [inline] slip_open+0x36d/0x1210 drivers/net/slip/slip.c:817 tty_ldisc_open+0xa2/0x120 drivers/tty/tty_ldisc.c:433 tty_set_ldisc+0x324/0x720 drivers/tty/tty_ldisc.c:564

Freed by task 6497: device_release+0xa2/0x240 drivers/base/core.c:2507 kobject_put+0x179/0x280 lib/kobject.c:729 netdev_run_todo+0x6c8/0xef0 net/core/dev.c:10509 slip_close+0x166/0x1c0 drivers/net/slip/slip.c:906 tty_ldisc_close+0x113/0x1a0 drivers/tty/tty_ldisc.c:456 tty_ldisc_kill+0x94/0x160 drivers/tty/tty_ldisc.c:614 tty_ldisc_release+0xe3/0x2b0 drivers/tty/tty_ldisc.c:782 tty_release+0xbcc/0xe70 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1860

Commit e58c19124189 ("slip: Fix use-after-free Read in slip_open") fixed a different source of stale entries - a device left in slip_devs[] after slip_open() freed it on the registration error path - and does not address this race, which is why the report survives it.

Drop the entry from ndo_uninit instead. unregister_netdevice() calls ndo_uninit under RTNL, before the device is queued to netdev_run_todo(), so an entry that sl_sync() can still see while holding RTNL belongs to a device that cannot be freed until RTNL is dropped. sl_free_netdev() stays only for the slip_open() error path, where register_netdevice() may have failed before ndo_init and ndo_uninit is then not called either. Both running for the same device is harmless: the ---truncated---

AnalysisAI

Use-after-free race condition in the Linux kernel SLIP driver's sl_sync() function exposes systems running kernels from 2.6.32 onward to local privilege escalation. The slip_devs[] global array stores bare net_device pointers without reference counting; when sl_sync() races with slip_close() teardown, a pointer can be read and dereferenced after netdev_run_todo() has already freed the backing structure because the RTNL semaphore is intentionally dropped during teardown. …

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Vulnerability AssessmentAI

Exploitation Exploitation requires a local account with at least user-level (low) privileges sufficient to open a TTY device and invoke the TIOCSETD ioctl to set the N_SLIP line discipline. … Additional conditions and limiting factors are described in the full assessment.
Risk Assessment The CVSS 7.8 vector (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) records full kernel impact, reflecting that UAF primitives in frequently exercised kernel paths can be escalated to arbitrary code execution. … Full risk analysis with EPSS, KEV, and SSVC signal comparison available after sign-in.
Exploit Scenario Full exploit scenario with step-by-step reproduction available after sign-in.
Remediation Vendor-released patches are available via the upstream Linux stable tree. … Detailed patch versions, workarounds, and compensating controls in full report.

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Within 24 hours, identify all systems running affected Linux kernel versions with SLIP driver support. …

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CVE-2026-81001 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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