CVE-2026-74725

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's enic driver. During device removal, a timing issue can occur where a transmit (TX) timeout schedules a reset operation after the device's memory has been freed. This leads to a use-after-free vulnerability, a type of memory corruption where the system attempts to access memory that is no longer allocated. This can result in system instability, crashes, or potentially allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code.

A Moderate severity use-after-free flaw was found in the Linux kernel enic network driver used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat In-Vehicle OS. During device removal, enic_remove() cancels the reset and change_mtu work items but not tx_hang_reset, so a transmit (TX) timeout that fires while the device is being removed can schedule enic_tx_hang_reset() to run after free_netdev(), accessing memory that has already been freed. Exploiting this race requires privileged local control over device removal together with a TX timeout occurring within the narrow teardown window; the verified consequence is a kernel crash, resulting in denial of service. The kernel and kernel-rt packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 ELS, 8, 9, and 10 and the Red Hat In-Vehicle OS 2 kernel packages are affected; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is not affected because the vulnerable code is not present in that release. The fix is currently deferred for the affected products: the flaw can only be triggered in a short race window during device teardown by a privileged local actor, so the residual risk is limited to denial of service with no demonstrated impact on confidentiality or integrity. Red Hat's severity (CVSS 5.5, AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) is lower than the upstream score of 7.8 because Red Hat assessed the reliable attack path as local and privileged with impact on availability only, whereas the upstream scoring assumes full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.

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 do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.