CVE-2026-72363

A flaw was found in the netfs component of the Linux kernel. This vulnerability occurs when the system runs out of memory during a data write operation, leading to an incorrect state for the affected memory pages (folios). An attacker could potentially trigger this condition, which may cause the system to become unstable or unresponsive, resulting in a denial of service (DoS). The fix ensures that these memory pages are properly managed to prevent such issues.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate because exploitation requires local access and specific memory-exhaustion conditions during network filesystem write operations, limiting the impact strictly to a denial of service without compromising confidentiality or integrity. Successful abuse would require a local authenticated user to induce kernel allocation failures while writing to an active network mount, potentially resulting in system hangs or kernel panic. Older enterprise releases, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and 9, lack the vulnerable folio writeback logic and are therefore not affected.

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.