CVE-2026-97941

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. A race condition in the slab memory management subsystem occurs when memory is concurrently freed and refilled across multiple processor cores without proper locking. An unprivileged local user could exploit this flaw by issuing concurrent system calls that trigger memory allocation, leading to kernel list corruption. This issue could allow an attacker to achieve privilege escalation or cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via a system crash.

This vulnerability is rated as having an Important severity because local authenticated users could trigger kernel memory corruption to escalate privileges or cause a denial of service across the entire host. Exploitation relies on precise timing during concurrent object allocations and deallocations in the slab allocator. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and related container products are not affected, as the flawed code was not introduced into shipped 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.