CVE-2026-74512: Linux

High severity, CVSS 7.8. EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: audit: fix potential use-after-free in audit_del_rule() `audit_del_rule()` destroys `e->rule.exe` via `audit_remove_mark_rule()` before unlinking the rule from RCU-visible filter lists and waiting for a grace period. Concurrent readers in `audit_filter()` and `audit_filter_rules()` still dereference `e->rule.exe`, while the fsnotify mark can be freed on an independent lifetime path. This creates a use-after-free window during rule deletion. Fix this by unlinking the rule from the RCU-visible lists and invoking `synchronize_rcu()` before calling `audit_remove_mark_rule()` (and other rule removal helpers). This ensures that all existing RCU readers have exited the critical section before any underlying resources are destroyed.

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 4.3, before 5.10.265 (fixed in 5.10.265); from 5.11, before 5.15.216 (fixed in 5.15.216); from 5.16, before 6.1.183 (fixed in 6.1.183); from 6.2, before 6.6.151 (fixed in 6.6.151); from 6.7, before 6.12.103 (fixed in 6.12.103); from 6.13, before 6.18.44 (fixed in 6.18.44); …

Published 2026-08-15. Last modified 2026-08-19.