CVE-2026-64424

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's netpoll module. During the system shutdown process, a race condition can occur where a network transmission worker attempts to access memory that has already been deallocated. This use-after-free vulnerability can lead to system instability, causing a denial of service (DoS) by crashing the system.

A use-after-free can occur in the netpoll shutdown path when delayed TX work keeps running while netpoll_info is being released through RCU cleanup. The worker reaches the freed object through its embedded work item and can touch the freed TX queue after kfree, which is a kernel memory corruption condition and at least a crashable DoS. For the CVSS the PR:L is used for the paranoid score because a reduced capability local actor with delegated network or device administration may be able to trigger cleanup paths in some deployments, while the base case is closer to administrator controlled netpoll or netconsole teardown. The issue is not directly network reachable because the vulnerable window is in shutdown cleanup rather than packet receive processing. Impact is at least local denial of service via kernel crash and in the worst defensible case may include confidentiality or integrity impact due to UAF based memory corruption.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.