CVE-2026-97444

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. Missing boundary checks within the ACPICA (ACPI Component Architecture) subsystem allow out-of-bounds memory access when parsing ACPI bytecode. An attacker capable of supplying malformed ACPI tables can trigger this vulnerability, leading to a kernel crash and a Denial of Service (DoS).

A moderate-severity flaw was found in the ACPICA (ACPI Component Architecture) parser of the Linux kernel shipped in Red Hat products. Missing boundary checks in acpi_ps_get_next_namestring() and acpi_ps_peek_opcode() allow an out-of-bounds memory read while parsing ACPI bytecode. Exploiting this flaw requires supplying or loading malformed ACPI tables, which an attacker can only do with local access and elevated privileges (such as root or CAP_SYS_ADMIN via the bootloader, initrd, or configfs), and the resulting out-of-bounds read can crash the kernel, causing a denial of service. The read is confined to the kernel's bytecode parsing routines and does not permit disclosure of sensitive data or modification of memory. Red Hat therefore rates this flaw Moderate (CVSS 5.5, AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H), a lower severity than the upstream CVE record's Important rating (7.7), whose confidentiality impact is not supported by the available evidence. The kernel and kernel-rt packages in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9, and 10, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) kernels shipped with OpenShift Container Platform 4 and 5, and the Red Hat In-Vehicle OS 2 kernels are affected. The fix is deferred for these products because this is a denial-of-service issue that requires an already privileged local attacker able to control the ACPI tables loaded by the kernel; it will be addressed in a future update, and the residual risk is limited to a local denial of service by such an attacker. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Extended Lifecycle Support stream is out of support and has no fix scheduled.

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.