CVE-2026-80521

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's af_unix component. A race condition during concurrent send() and close() operations can lead to the garbage collector (GC) partially freeing a Strongly Connected Component (SCC). This inconsistent state may cause subsequent GC operations to iterate over a partially freed entry, potentially leading to system instability or a denial of service.

Red Hat has rated this vulnerability as having an Important impact because an authenticated local user can exploit this race condition to induce kernel memory corruption, resulting in system instability or potential local privilege escalation. UNIX domain sockets are a core inter-process communication facility exposed to unprivileged users by default on standard deployments. This flaw impacts Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, whereas older enterprise releases including RHEL 9 and earlier do not contain the vulnerable garbage collection logic.

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.