Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2026-43336

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.10.253 / 5.15.203 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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: lib/crypto: chacha: Zeroize permuted_state before it leaves scope Since the ChaCha permutation is invertible, the local variable 'permuted_state' is sufficient to compute the original 'state', and thus the key, even after the permutation has been done. While the kernel is quite inconsistent about zeroizing secrets on the stack (and some prominent userspace crypto libraries don't bother at all since it's not guaranteed to work anyway), the kernel does try to do it as a best practice, especially in cases involving the RNG. Thus, explicitly zeroize 'permuted_state' before it goes out of scope.

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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:>= 4.2, < 5.10.253>= 5.11, < 5.15.203>= 5.16, < 6.1.169>= 6.2, < 6.6.135>= 6.7, < 6.12.82>= 6.13, < 6.18.22>= 6.19, < 6.19.12= 7.0

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

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 5.10.253 / 5.15.203 / 6.1.169 or later
Fixed in 5.10.2535.15.2036.1.169
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to kernel 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.169, or 6.6.135 or later (choose the stable branch appropriate for your system)

  1. Identify the specific kernel version currently running using `uname -r`
  2. Obtain the patch from commit 066c760acead1fb743bae294dbd89f479ae43b9b: https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/066c760acead1fb743bae294dbd89f479ae43b9b
  3. Apply the patch to the kernel source code in lib/crypto/chacha.c
  4. Recompile the kernel with the patch applied
  5. Reboot into the patched kernel
  6. Alternatively, upgrade to a fixed kernel version (see upgrade_path)
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require rebuild of out-of-tree modules and could introduce regressions; test in staging environment before production deployment

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

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2026-43336 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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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