Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2026-46050

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.15.209 / 6.1.175 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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: md/raid10: fix deadlock with check operation and nowait requests When an array check is running it will raise the barrier at which point normal requests will become blocked and increment the nr_pending value to signal there is work pending inside of wait_barrier(). NOWAIT requests do not block and so will return immediately with an error, and additionally do not increment nr_pending in wait_barrier(). Upstream change commit 43806c3d5b9b ("raid10: cleanup memleak at raid10_make_request") added a call to raid_end_bio_io() to fix a memory leak when NOWAIT requests hit this condition. raid_end_bio_io() eventually calls allow_barrier() and it will unconditionally do an atomic_dec_and_test(&conf->nr_pending) even though the corresponding increment on nr_pending didn't happen in the NOWAIT case. This can be easily seen by starting a check operation while an application is doing nowait IO on the same array. This results in a deadlocked state due to nr_pending value underflowing and so the md resync thread gets stuck waiting for nr_pending to == 0. Output of r10conf state of the array when we hit this condition: crash> struct r10conf barrier = 1, nr_pending = { counter = -41 }, nr_waiting = 15, nr_queued = 0, Example of md_sync thread stuck waiting on raise_barrier() and other requests stuck in wait_barrier(): md1_resync [<0>] raise_barrier+0xce/0x1c0 [<0>] raid10_sync_request+0x1ca/0x1ed0 [<0>] md_do_sync+0x779/0x1110 [<0>] md_thread+0x90/0x160 [<0>] kthread+0xbe/0xf0 [<0>] ret_from_fork+0x34/0x50 [<0>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 kworker/u1040:2+flush-253:4 [<0>] wait_barrier+0x1de/0x220 [<0>] regular_request_wait+0x30/0x180 [<0>] raid10_make_request+0x261/0x1000 [<0>] md_handle_request+0x13b/0x230 [<0>] __submit_bio+0x107/0x1f0 [<0>] submit_bio_noacct_nocheck+0x16f/0x390 [<0>] ext4_io_submit+0x24/0x40 [<0>] ext4_do_writepages+0x254/0xc80 [<0>] ext4_writepages+0x84/0x120 [<0>] do_writepages+0x7a/0x260 [<0>] __writeback_single_inode+0x3d/0x300 [<0>] writeback_sb_inodes+0x1dd/0x470 [<0>] __writeback_inodes_wb+0x4c/0xe0 [<0>] wb_writeback+0x18b/0x2d0 [<0>] wb_workfn+0x2a1/0x400 [<0>] process_one_work+0x149/0x330 [<0>] worker_thread+0x2d2/0x410 [<0>] kthread+0xbe/0xf0 [<0>] ret_from_fork+0x34/0x50 [<0>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

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-667

Shared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.

General guidance for the improper locking 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:>= 5.15.189, < 5.15.209>= 6.1.146, < 6.1.175>= 6.6.99, < 6.6.140>= 6.12.39, < 6.12.86>= 6.15.7, < 6.16>= 6.16.1, < 6.18.27>= 6.19, < 7.0.4= 6.16

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.15.209 / 6.1.175 / 6.6.140 or later
Fixed in 5.15.2096.1.1756.6.140
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel >= 5.15.209 (5.15.x branch), >= 6.1.175 (6.1.x branch), >= 6.6.140 (6.6.x branch), or >= 6.12.86 (6.12.x branch)

  1. Identify the currently running kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. Determine which major kernel branch your version belongs to (5.15.x, 6.1.x, 6.6.x, or 6.12.x)
  3. Upgrade to a kernel version that includes the fix: For 5.15.x upgrade to >= 5.15.209, for 6.1.x upgrade to >= 6.1.175, for 6.6.x upgrade to >= 6.6.140, for 6.12.x upgrade to >= 6.12.86
  4. On Debian/Ubuntu: `apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade` or install specific kernel package
  5. On RHEL/CentOS: `yum update kernel` or `dnf update kernel`
  6. On SUSE: `zypper update kernel-default`
  7. Reboot the system to load the new kernel using `systemctl reboot`
  8. Verify the new kernel is running with `uname -r` and confirm the version includes the fix (>= the minimum fixed version for your branch)
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require system reboot and could have compatibility implications with custom kernel modules or specific hardware drivers; test in staging if possible

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 $1,600. 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-2026-46050 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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