CVE-2026-74342

UNRATEDCVSS · not yet scoredTrending — 5 sources updated this week
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • No CVSS published and no exploitation signals yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0%CVSS v2: Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

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

kernfs: link kn to its parent before the LSM init hook

After commit 12e9e3cd03b5 ("simpe_xattr: use per-sb cache"), kernfs_xattr_set() and kernfs_xattr_get() compute the cache via kernfs_root(kn) before any other check. kernfs_root(kn) walks kn->__parent first and falls back to kn->dir.root, both of which are NULL on a freshly kmem_cache_zalloc()'d kn. kn->__parent was being set in kernfs_new_node() after __kernfs_new_node() returned, and kn->dir.root is set even later by kernfs_create_dir_ns() / kernfs_create_empty_dir().

The LSM kernfs_init_security hook is invoked from inside __kernfs_new_node(), before either field has been initialized. selinux_kernfs_init_security() ends with kernfs_xattr_set(kn, XATTR_NAME_SELINUX, ...). kernfs_root(kn) then returns NULL, and &((struct kernfs_root *)NULL)->xa_cache evaluates to offsetof(struct kernfs_root, xa_cache) which faults:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000000e0 RIP: 0010:simple_xattr_set+0x27/0x8b0 Call Trace: kernfs_xattr_set+0x63/0xb0 selinux_kernfs_init_security+0x13b/0x270 security_kernfs_init_security+0x36/0xc0 __kernfs_new_node+0x182/0x290 kernfs_new_node+0x80/0xc0 kernfs_create_dir_ns+0x2b/0xa0 cgroup_create+0x116/0x380 cgroup_mkdir+0x7c/0x1a0

Reproduces deterministically at PID 1 (systemd) on an SELinux-enabled distro. The first cgroup mkdir under /sys/fs/cgroup with a labelled parent panics the kernel.

The LSM hook's contract is that the kn_dir argument is the parent of the new kn, so kn->__parent should already point at kn_dir when the hook runs. Move kernfs_get(parent) and rcu_assign_pointer of kn->__parent from kernfs_new_node() into __kernfs_new_node() right before the security hook, and unwind the parent reference on the err_out4 path. kernfs_root(kn) then takes its parent branch during the hook and returns parent->dir.root, which is the correct root.

This also closes the same-shape latent bug in kernfs_xattr_get() (which today is hidden only by kernfs_iattrs_noalloc() returning NULL on a fresh kn).

CVSS v3
EchelonGraph score
Not yet assessedNo source has published severity data for this CVE yet — no CVSS score from NVD or a CNA, no GitHub advisory, and it is not in CISA KEV. This is not a rating of zero; we cannot assess it yet.
EG Score
EG Risk
EPSS PROB
0%
EPSS %ILE
5%
KEV
Not listed

Published

August 15, 2026

Last Modified

August 17, 2026

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-74342(1)

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

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 17× in last 7d / 17× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. 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. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-08-20 22:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-20 08:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-08-19 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-18 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-18 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-08-17 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-08-17 06:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-08-17 06:22 UTCNVD update
  9. 2026-08-17 05:26 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-08-17 05:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-08-17 05:24 UTCMITRE cvelistV5
  12. 2026-08-16 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-16 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-08-16 02:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-08-15 06:23 UTCNVD update
  16. 2026-08-15 06:15 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-08-15 06:12 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked

Frequently asked(4)

What is CVE-2026-74342?
CVE-2026-74342 is a publicly disclosed vulnerability published on August 15, 2026. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kernfs: link kn to its parent before the LSM init hook After commit 12e9e3cd03b5 ("simpe_xattr: use per-sb cache"), kernfsxattrset() and kernfsxattrget() compute the cache via kernfsroot(kn) before any other check. kernfsroot(kn)…
When was CVE-2026-74342 disclosed?
CVE-2026-74342 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on August 15, 2026, with the most recent update on August 17, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-74342 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-74342 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 94.8% of all scored CVEs.
How do I remediate CVE-2026-74342?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-74342, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

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