CVE-2026-97611

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Open vSwitch subsystem. A race condition during the reallocation of internal flow table structures allows memory to be freed while it is still being accessed by packet processing routines, causing a use-after-free condition. An attacker can exploit this flaw during flow table updates to cause a system crash resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS) or potentially escalate privileges.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate impact for Red Hat Enterprise Linux because exploitation requires local access and winning a tight timing window during concurrent flow table modifications. In typical Red Hat deployments, the openvswitch kernel driver is not loaded by default unless Open vSwitch networking or container networking environments requiring OVS are configured. Consequently, default installations without active Open vSwitch services remain unaffected.

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.