CVE-2026-43016 | bpf: sockmap: Fix use-after-free of sk->sk_socket in sk_psock_verdict_data_ready().

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: sockmap: Fix use-after-free of sk->sk_socket in sk_psock_verdict_data_ready(). syzbot reported use-after-free of AF_UNIX socket's sk->sk_socket in sk_psock_verdict_data_ready(). [0] In unix_stream_sendmsg(), the peer socket's ->sk_data_ready() is called after dropping its unix_state_lock(). Although the sender socket holds the peer's refcount, it does not prevent the peer's sock_orphan(), and the peer's sk_socket might be freed after one RCU grace period. Let's fetch the peer's sk->sk_socket and sk->sk_socket->ops under RCU in sk_psock_verdict_data_ready(). [0]: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in sk_psock_verdict_data_ready+0xec/0x590 net/core/skmsg.c:1278 Read of size 8 at addr ffff8880594da860 by task syz.4.1842/11013 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 11013 Comm: syz.4.1842 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 02/12/2026 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0xe8/0x150 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xba/0x230 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report+0x117/0x150 mm/kasan/report.c:595 sk_psock_verdict_data_ready+0xec/0x590 net/core/skmsg.c:1278 unix_stream_sendmsg+0x8a3/0xe80 net/unix/af_unix.c:2482 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:721 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:736 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0x972/0x9f0 net/socket.c:2585 ___sys_sendmsg+0x2a5/0x360 net/socket.c:2639 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2671 [inline] __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2676 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2674 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x1bd/0x2a0 net/socket.c:2674 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x14d/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7facf899c819 Code: ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 e8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007facf9827028 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002e RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007facf8c15fa0 RCX: 00007facf899c819 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000200000000500 RDI: 0000000000000004 RBP: 00007facf8a32c91 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007facf8c16038 R14: 00007facf8c15fa0 R15: 00007ffd41b01c78 </TASK> Allocated by task 11013: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:57 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x3e/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:78 unpoison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:340 [inline] __kasan_slab_alloc+0x6c/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:366 kasan_slab_alloc include/linux/kasan.h:253 [inline] slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4538 [inline] slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:4866 [inline] kmem_cache_alloc_lru_noprof+0x2b8/0x640 mm/slub.c:4885 sock_alloc_inode+0x28/0xc0 net/socket.c:316 alloc_inode+0x6a/0x1b0 fs/inode.c:347 new_inode_pseudo include/linux/fs.h:3003 [inline] sock_alloc net/socket.c:631 [inline] __sock_create+0x12d/0x9d0 net/socket.c:1562 sock_create net/socket.c:1656 [inline] __sys_socketpair+0x1c4/0x560 net/socket.c:1803 __do_sys_socketpair net/socket.c:1856 [inline] __se_sys_socketpair net/socket.c:1853 [inline] __x64_sys_socketpair+0x9b/0xb0 net/socket.c:1853 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x14d/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f Freed by task 15: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:57 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x3e/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:78 kasan_save_free_info+0x46/0x50 mm/kasan/generic.c:584 poison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:253 [inline] __kasan_slab_free+0x5c/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:285 kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:235 [inline] slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:2685 [inline] slab_free mm/slub.c:6165 [inline] kmem_cache_free+0x187/0x630 mm/slub.c:6295 rcu_do_batch kernel/rcu/tree.c: ---truncated---

Published: 2026-05-01 Last update: 2026-05-07 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-43016 is rated Low Risk (32.9/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-43016

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-02 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-43016

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 5.9 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-43016

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-43016

GHSA-52mq-7c45-jwp5 · Severity: high — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: sockmap: Fix use-after...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-43016

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2026-43016 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-43016
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-43016
suse medium CVE-2026-43016 severity moderate: SUSE including 18 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 85 product×package rows across 18 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching 12 SP5, … (18 product lines)): Known Not Affected 85. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-43016/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-43016 medium priority: Ubuntu including 161 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1449 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1047, ignored 169, needed 89, released 84, not-affected 55, needs-triage 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-43016

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-43016

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.15, < 6.6.134 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.81 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.18.22 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 6.19.12 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-43016

cvelogic Threat Intelligence