CVE-2026-72238

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. A local user could cause a system hang during early boot by providing an invalid baud rate for the console=uart8250 parameter. This invalid input leads to a division-by-zero error in the early_serial_init() function, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).

A MODERATE severity denial of service flaw was found in the Linux kernel x86 boot code. When the baud rate supplied for the console=uart8250 kernel command-line parameter is empty, zero, invalid, or overflows to zero when stored as an int, a division by zero occurs in early_serial_init() and the system hangs during early boot. A local user able to control kernel boot parameters could use this flaw to cause a complete denial of service of the system at boot time; confidentiality and integrity are not affected. All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10 (kernel and kernel-rt) and Red Hat In-Vehicle OS 2 (kernel and kernel-ivos-qualcomm) products in scope for this flaw are not affected because the vulnerable code is not present in the shipped kernels.

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.