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CVE-2026-45251· NVD / CVE Program· CNA freebsd

Kernel use-after-free via file descriptor syscalls

A file descriptor can be closed while a thread is blocked in a poll(2) or select(2) call waiting for that descriptor. Because the blocked thread does not hold a reference to the underlying object, this closure may result in the object being freed while the thread remains blocked. In this situation, the kernel must remove the blocked thread from the per-object wait queue prior to freeing the object. In the case of some file descriptor types, the kernel failed to unlink blocked threads from the object before freeing it. When the blocked thread is subsequently woken, it accesses memory that has already been freed resulting in a use-after-free vulnerability. The use-after-free vulnerability may be triggered by an unprivileged local user and can be exploited to obtain superuser privileges.

HighCVSS 7.8 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
May 21, 2026
Updated
Jul 23, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 4th percentile
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Action score

31

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.2%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

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Affected systems

VendorProduct
freebsdfreebsd

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • freebsd freebsd14.3
  • freebsd freebsd14.4
  • freebsd freebsd15.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (freebsd). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • FreeBSD FreeBSD

    • 15.0-RELEASE and later · before p9affected · release
    • 14.4-RELEASE and later · before p5affected · release
    • 14.3-RELEASE and later · before p14affected · release

Same product

freebsd: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2006-0900nfsd in FreeBSD 6.0 kernel allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted NFS mount request, as demonstrated by the Prot
    51Plan
  • CVE-2018-17157In FreeBSD before 11.2-STABLE(r340854) and 11.2-RELEASE-p5, an integer overflow error when handling opcodes can cause memory corruption by s
    46Plan
  • CVE-2010-1938Off-by-one error in the __opiereadrec function in readrec.c in libopie in OPIE 2.4.1-test1 and earlier, as used on FreeBSD 6.4 through 8.1-P
    44Plan
  • CVE-2006-4304Buffer overflow in the sppp driver in FreeBSD 4.11 through 6.1, NetBSD 2.0 through 4.0 beta before 20060823, and OpenBSD 3.8 and 3.9 before
    44Plan
  • CVE-2020-7457In FreeBSD 12.1-STABLE before r359565, 12.1-RELEASE before p7, 11.4-STABLE before r362975, 11.4-RELEASE before p1, and 11.3-RELEASE before p
    42Plan
  • CVE-2008-2427Stack-based buffer overflow in NConvert 4.92, GFL SDK 2.82, and XnView 1.93.6 on Windows and 1.70 on Linux and FreeBSD allows user-assisted
    42Plan

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
FreeBSD FreeBSDp14Vendor (CNA)
FreeBSD FreeBSDp5Vendor (CNA)
FreeBSD FreeBSDp9Vendor (CNA)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

  • CVE-2026-4941890 days apartUse-after-free in device pager page list
    35Monitor
  • CVE-2026-539830 days apartKernel use-after-free bug in the TIOCNOTTY handler
    33Monitor
  • CVE-2026-4942290 days apartUse-after-free in TCP RACK stack option handler
    33Monitor
  • CVE-2026-5808390 days apartUse-after-free in kqueue copy-on-fork
    33Monitor
  • CVE-2026-4941237 days apartUse-after-free bug in the IPV6_MSFILTER socket option handler
    31Monitor
  • CVE-2026-5809197 days apartKernel use-after-free via the SNDCTL_DSP_SYNCSTART ioctl
    31Monitor

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-416 · Use After Free

CVSS vector

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

nvd-secondary

Root cause

After a memory region is freed, another reference pointing to it is still used. By then, the same region may have been allocated for different data.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-416 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

c
free(dev->buf);/* ... another thread is still running ... */process(dev->buf);

Fixed

c
lock(&dev->lock);free(dev->buf);dev->buf = NULL;unlock(&dev->lock);

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records