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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2026-43291

HIGH · 8.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.15.202 / 6.1.165 or later.
See remediation →
88/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: nfc: nci: Fix parameter validation for packet data Since commit 9c328f54741b ("net: nfc: nci: Add parameter validation for packet data") communication with nci nfc chips is not working any more. The mentioned commit tries to fix access of uninitialized data, but failed to understand that in some cases the data packet is of variable length and can therefore not be compared to the maximum packet length given by the sizeof(struct).

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 analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-908

Memory or a resource is used before it has been initialised, so its contents are whatever happened to be there — sometimes leaking earlier data, sometimes values an attacker can influence. Behaviour becomes unpredictable and occasionally exploitable. Remediation is initialising every resource before use and ensuring initialisation happens on all code paths.

General guidance for the use of uninitialized resource 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
Affected:>= 5.15.195, < 5.15.202>= 6.1.156, < 6.1.165>= 6.6.112, < 6.6.128>= 6.12.53, < 6.12.75>= 6.17.3, < 6.18>= 6.18, < 6.18.16>= 6.19, < 6.19.6

CVSS 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
Adjacent
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
Low
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.15.202 / 6.1.165 / 6.6.128 or later
Fixed in 5.15.2026.1.1656.6.128
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, or 6.12.75 (depending on which stable branch you are on)

  1. Identify your current kernel version using `uname -r` or `cat /proc/version`
  2. Determine which version range your kernel falls into from the affected versions list
  3. Upgrade your Linux kernel to one of the fixed versions: Linux 5.15.202+, 6.1.165+, 6.6.128+, or 6.12.75+
  4. For distribution-specific systems, use your package manager to install the updated kernel (e.g., `apt-get update && apt-get install linux-image-<version>` for Debian/Ubuntu, or `yum update kernel` for RHEL/CentOS)
  5. Reboot the system to load the new kernel using `shutdown -r now` or `reboot`
  6. Verify the kernel has been updated by running `uname -r` and confirming it shows a version at or above the fixed version for your branch
Caveat Upgrading kernel versions may require system reboot and could affect third-party kernel modules; ensure compatibility of any custom drivers before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-43291 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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