Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2026-64137

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Developing Published 2026-07-19
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.15.210 / 6.1.176 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click 4 weeks old

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: smb: client: require net admin for CIFS SWN netlink CIFS_GENL_CMD_SWN_NOTIFY is the userspace witness-notify command. The intended sender is the cifs.witness helper, but the generic-netlink operation currently has no capability flag, so any local process can send RESOURCE_CHANGE or CLIENT_MOVE notifications to the in-kernel witness handler. The same family exposes CIFS_GENL_MCGRP_SWN without multicast-group capability flags. Register messages sent to that group include the witness registration id and, for NTLM-authenticated mounts, the username, domain, and password attributes copied from the CIFS session. An unprivileged local process should not be able to join that group and receive those messages. Require CAP_NET_ADMIN for incoming SWN_NOTIFY commands with GENL_ADMIN_PERM, and require CAP_NET_ADMIN over the network namespace for joining the SWN multicast group with GENL_MCAST_CAP_NET_ADMIN. The cifs.witness service runs with the privileges needed for both operations.

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 · low confidence
Developing — this CVE was published recently and its authoritative NVD entry is still being established, so we're holding a technical summary until the source data settles rather than publish something unreliable. Re-checking after 2026-08-02.

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:>= 5.11, < 5.15.210>= 5.16, < 6.1.176>= 6.2, < 6.6.143>= 6.7, < 6.12.92>= 6.13, < 6.18.34>= 6.19, < 7.0.11= 7.1

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 5.15.210 / 6.1.176 / 6.6.143 or later
Fixed in 5.15.2106.1.1766.6.143
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

A Linux kernel version containing the commit that adds GENL_ADMIN_PERM and GENL_MCAST_CAP_NET_ADMIN to the CIFS SWN netlink family

  1. Upgrade the Linux kernel to a version that includes the fix for CVE-2026-64137
  2. The fix adds GENL_ADMIN_PERM requirement for CIFS_GENL_CMD_SWN_NOTIFY commands
  3. The fix adds GENL_MCAST_CAP_NET_ADMIN requirement for joining CIFS_GENL_MCGRP_SWN multicast group
  4. After kernel upgrade, verify CIFS/SMB client functionality works correctly with the cifs.witness service
Caveat Kernel upgrade may require system reboot and could have compatibility implications with existing CIFS mounts

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-2026-64137 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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