Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2026-43280
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/xe: Add bounds check on pat_index to prevent OOB kernel read in madvise When user provides a bogus pat_index value through the madvise IOCTL, the xe_pat_index_get_coh_mode() function performs an array access without validating bounds. This allows a malicious user to trigger an out-of-bounds kernel read from the xe->pat.table array. The vulnerability exists because the validation in madvise_args_are_sane() directly calls xe_pat_index_get_coh_mode(xe, args->pat_index.val) without first checking if pat_index is within [0, xe->pat.n_entries). Although xe_pat_index_get_coh_mode() has a WARN_ON to catch this in debug builds, it still performs the unsafe array access in production kernels. v2(Matthew Auld) - Using array_index_nospec() to mitigate spectre attacks when the value is used v3(Matthew Auld) - Put the declarations at the start of the block (cherry picked from commit 944a3329b05510d55c69c2ef455136e2fc02de29)
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysisThe code reads past the end (or before the start) of a buffer, returning memory that was never meant to be exposed. Attackers use it to leak secrets like keys or to defeat memory-protection defences. Remediation is validating indices and lengths before every read.
General guidance for the out-of-bounds read class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
>= 6.18, < 6.18.16>= 6.19, < 6.19.6CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped6.18.166.19.6
Linux Kernel 6.18.16 or 6.19.6 (depending on which stable branch you are on)
- Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using 'uname -r'
- Confirm the affected version falls within the vulnerable range: >= 6.18 and < 6.18.16, or >= 6.19 and < 6.19.6
- Schedule a maintenance window for kernel upgrade
- Update the system package repository and install the fixed kernel version: For RHEL/CentOS use 'yum update kernel' or 'dnf update kernel'; For Debian/Ubuntu use 'apt-get update && apt-get install linux-image-generic' or follow distribution-specific kernel update procedures
- Reboot the system to load the fixed kernel: 'systemctl reboot' or 'shutdown -r now'
- After reboot, verify the new kernel version is installed and running: 'uname -r'
- Confirm the version is either 6.18.16 or higher, or 6.19.6 or higher
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-43280 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-43280 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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