CVE-2026-80916

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's kcov component. A race condition occurs in PREEMPT_RT kernels when softirq handlers, running as preemptible task threads, are preempted by higher-priority softirq threads on the same CPU. This can lead to data corruption of the KCOV state, kernel crashes, and memory leaks. The most significant consequence is a potential denial of service (DoS) due to system instability and resource exhaustion.

This vulnerability is evaluated as having Moderate impact because exploitation requires local access, affects only real-time kernel configurations with coverage tracing active, and is limited to causing a denial of service rather than privilege escalation or data exposure. The flaw stems from concurrency issues within the kernel code coverage mechanism under real-time preemption. Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases are not affected as the vulnerable implementation is not present in supported production 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.