CVE-2026-45972

CRITICALPre-NVD 9.89.8
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to the CVSS score beside it.

Score 9.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: CRITICAL) published 2026-05-27. A secondary CVSS source baseline 9.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, a secondary CVSS source
Trending — 4 sources updated this week
9.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.3%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

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

smb: client: fix potential UAF and double free in smb2_open_file()

Zero out @err_iov and @err_buftype before retrying SMB2_open() to prevent an UAF bug if @data != NULL, otherwise a double free.

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8CRITICALmedium confidence
EG Risk
59
EG Risk 59/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.

How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity98% × 45%
Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 9.8 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.
Exploitation0.3% × 40%
FIRST EPSS: the 30-day exploitation probability when EchelonGraph scored this CVE.
Automatability100% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: yes (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low or medium mission impact; Attend at high (mission-essential systems).
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
EPSS PROB
0.3%
EPSS %ILE
24th
KEV
Not listed

What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)

The EG score (9.8): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 9.8 is its impact severity (EG Severity), not escalated.

EG Severity
9.8 CRITICALCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
EG Likelihood
0.3% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-10-19). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
Confirmed exploitation
None on record (CISA KEV, EG-KEV Tier 1)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
EG Priority
SSVC Track at medium mission impactTrack at low or medium mission impact; Attend at high (mission-essential systems).CISA BOD 26-04: 3 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; 60 days if it is not.Each input and its source: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low or medium mission impact; Attend at high (mission-essential systems).

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.

Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; 60 days if it is not.

In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

May 27, 2026

Last Modified

October 19, 2026

Advisory Details (9)

Auto-updated Oct 20, 2026
Patch available. Sources: redhat.
Red Hat

2481973 – (CVE-2026-45972) CVE-2026-45972 kernel: smb: client: fix potential UAF and double free in smb2_open_file()

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2481973
Red HatMentions a patch (unverified)

CVE-2026-45972 - Red Hat Customer Portal

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or OpenShift Container Platform 4, is affected by this vulnerability and a fix may be released to a

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-45972
Web page

smb: client: fix potential UAF and double free in smb2_open_file() - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ebbbc4bfad4cb355d17c671223d0814ee3ef4eda
Web page

smb: client: fix potential UAF and double free in smb2_open_file() - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e66dcf7bb9c4df5582c82bc3582725abcbfbea73
Web page

smb: client: fix potential UAF and double free in smb2_open_file() - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/96e53bb3ee2f354cf6b4ab07bcc56e500f8b3f74
Web page

smb: client: fix potential UAF and double free in smb2_open_file() - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7425453ea16dbc3bbb0f6cac4d60b537e5e4d151
Web page

smb: client: fix potential UAF and double free in smb2_open_file() - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/639deb962986ef2f5e2a6d5a600c66f922471e81
Web page

smb: client: fix potential UAF and double free in smb2_open_file() - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4d339b219004869e96c4ce56b8891f83a38da4c0

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-45972(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(12)

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(3 across 3 ecosystems)
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
linux6.1.106-1 ... 6.1.99-1 (48 versions)
  • every version up to 6.1.170-1: fixed in 6.1.170-1
—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
linux6.12.38-1 ... 6.12.85-1~bpo12+1 (17 versions)
  • every version up to 6.12.85-1: fixed in 6.12.85-1
—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
linux6.12.100-1 ... 6.18~rc7-1~exp1 (104 versions)
  • every version up to 6.18.14-1: fixed in 6.18.14-1
—

Weakness Classification(2)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

All Vendor Advisories

(11)

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 33× in last 7d / 58× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 499 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. None are among the latest 100 rows. The 399 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-10-19 20:26 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-10-19 20:26 UTCVendor advisory
  3. 2026-10-19 20:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  4. 2026-10-19 19:30 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-10-19 19:30 UTCVendor advisory
  6. 2026-10-19 19:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  7. 2026-10-19 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  8. 2026-10-19 13:12 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-10-19 13:12 UTCVendor advisory
  10. 2026-10-19 13:12 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  11. 2026-10-18 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  12. 2026-10-18 12:10 UTCVendor advisory
  13. 2026-10-18 12:09 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  14. 2026-10-18 03:37 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-10-17 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  16. 2026-10-17 14:21 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-10-17 14:21 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  18. 2026-10-16 16:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  19. 2026-10-16 16:31 UTCEG score recompute
  20. 2026-10-16 16:31 UTCVendor advisory
  21. 2026-10-16 16:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  22. 2026-10-16 15:30 UTCEG score recompute
  23. 2026-10-16 15:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  24. 2026-10-16 12:28 UTCEG score recompute
  25. 2026-10-16 12:28 UTCVendor advisory
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-10-16 12:28 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  2. 2026-10-15 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  3. 2026-10-15 14:15 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-10-15 14:14 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  5. 2026-10-14 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  6. 2026-10-14 08:59 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-10-14 08:59 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  8. 2026-10-13 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  9. 2026-10-13 05:33 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-10-13 05:33 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  11. 2026-10-12 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  12. 2026-10-12 16:03 UTCEG score recompute
  13. 2026-10-12 07:42 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  14. 2026-10-11 19:46 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-10-11 17:00 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-10-11 14:25 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-10-11 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  18. 2026-10-10 20:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  19. 2026-10-09 20:07 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
  20. 2026-10-08 17:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  21. 2026-10-07 23:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  22. 2026-10-06 15:18 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  23. 2026-10-05 17:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  24. 2026-10-04 23:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  25. 2026-10-03 18:51 UTCOSV refresh
  26. 2026-10-03 14:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  27. 2026-10-01 19:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  28. 2026-09-30 15:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  29. 2026-09-28 13:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 37th percentile
  30. 2026-09-27 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 37th percentile
  31. 2026-09-26 15:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 37th percentile
  32. 2026-09-23 17:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  33. 2026-09-20 20:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  34. 2026-09-18 19:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  35. 2026-09-17 19:31 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  36. 2026-09-16 14:08 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  37. 2026-09-16 05:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  38. 2026-09-14 08:55 UTCEG score recompute
  39. 2026-09-14 08:55 UTCVendor advisory
  40. 2026-09-14 08:54 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  41. 2026-09-13 16:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  42. 2026-09-13 04:09 UTCOSV refresh
  43. 2026-09-12 15:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  44. 2026-09-11 14:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  45. 2026-09-11 09:37 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  46. 2026-09-10 09:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  47. 2026-09-08 22:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  48. 2026-09-07 16:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  49. 2026-09-06 13:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  50. 2026-09-04 05:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
  51. 2026-09-02 14:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
  52. 2026-09-01 13:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
  53. 2026-08-30 19:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
  54. 2026-08-30 01:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
  55. 2026-08-28 21:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
  56. 2026-08-27 14:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
  57. 2026-08-26 14:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
  58. 2026-08-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
  59. 2026-08-25 05:36 UTCEG score recompute
  60. 2026-08-25 05:36 UTCVendor advisory
  61. 2026-08-25 05:35 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  62. 2026-08-23 23:59 UTCVendor advisory
  63. 2026-08-23 23:59 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  64. 2026-08-23 19:27 UTCVendor advisory
  65. 2026-08-23 19:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  66. 2026-08-23 15:26 UTCEG score recompute
  67. 2026-08-23 15:26 UTCVendor advisory
  68. 2026-08-23 15:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  69. 2026-08-23 00:19 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  70. 2026-08-22 00:47 UTCEG score recompute
  71. 2026-08-22 00:47 UTCVendor advisory
  72. 2026-08-22 00:47 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6w7x-q46j-6x9r · GitHub severity CRITICAL · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  73. 2026-08-21 23:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 26th percentile
  74. 2026-08-21 20:47 UTCEG score recompute
  75. 2026-08-21 20:47 UTCVendor advisory

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-45972?
CVE-2026-45972 is a critical-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on May 27, 2026. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: fix potential UAF and double free in smb2openfile() Zero out @erriov and @errbuftype before retrying SMB2_open() to prevent an UAF bug if @data != NULL, otherwise a double free.
When was the CVE record for CVE-2026-45972 published?
The CVE record for CVE-2026-45972 was published on May 27, 2026. That is the record's publication date; the vulnerability itself may have been made public earlier. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of October 19, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2026-45972 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-45972 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (24th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-45972?
CVE-2026-45972 has a CVSS base score of 9.8 (a secondary CVSS source that NVD displays; NVD's own analysis pending).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-45972?
A fix for CVE-2026-45972 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2026-45972 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2026-45972

Explore →

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2026-45972?

EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.