NVD / CVE Program· CNA Linux

CVE-2026-68178: misc: nsm: pin the module while the device is open

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 31/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.16% (FIRST EPSS).
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.
Fixed version: Linux Linux 1996639f824ce9468395cdb7bcb8f467fa787e77, 1da310b94504d42001e9c32c43c5dc105b777e5f, 3b231f1e9990f4c21220d0a69733ce2105891ff9.
Mentioned 1 time in Turkish national cyber security advisories (siberguvenlik.gov.tr).

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Linux Linux 1996639f824ce9468395cdb7bcb8f467fa787e77, 1da310b94504d42001e9c32c43c5dc105b777e5f, 3b231f1e9990f4c21220d0a69733ce2105891ff9 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: misc: nsm: pin the module while the device is open misc_open() installs a misc driver's file operations with fops_get(), which pins file_operations::owner before replacing the file's f_op. The NSM misc device leaves nsm_dev_fops.owner unset, so opening /dev/nsm does not take a module reference on the nsm driver. If the driver is built as a module, an open file descriptor can therefore survive rmmod of the module that provides its ioctl callbacks. A later ioctl through that descriptor can call into unloaded module text. Set nsm_dev_fops.owner to THIS_MODULE so the misc core holds the module while any /dev/nsm file descriptor is open, matching the lifetime expectation for the installed file operations.

HighCVSS 7.8 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

Memory safety

Published: Aug 10, 2026
Updated: Oct 19, 2026
EPSS: 0.1% · 5th percentile
CWE: CWE-416

Report tools

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Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.1%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: —
CNA · Linux: 7.8; NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

—

Versions reported by the vendor

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

Linux Linux
- 6.8affected
- b9873755a6c8ccfce79094c4dce9efa3ecb1a749 and later · before 1996639f824ce9468395cdb7bcb8f467fa787e77affected · git
- b9873755a6c8ccfce79094c4dce9efa3ecb1a749 and later · before 1da310b94504d42001e9c32c43c5dc105b777e5faffected · git
- b9873755a6c8ccfce79094c4dce9efa3ecb1a749 and later · before 9e9a82d00c3d10129fc310a7547b24a679d5d920affected · git
- b9873755a6c8ccfce79094c4dce9efa3ecb1a749 and later · before 3b231f1e9990f4c21220d0a69733ce2105891ff9affected · git
- before 6.8not affected · semver
- 6.12.101 and later · up to and including 6.12.*not affected · semver
- 6.18.42 and later · up to and including 6.18.*not affected · semver
- 7.1.6 and later · up to and including 7.1.*not affected · semver
- 7.2 and laternot affected · original_commit_for_fix

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Ecosystem	Package	Affected range	Fix
Debian:12	linux-6.12	before 6.12.101-1~deb12u1	6.12.101-1~deb12u1
Debian:13	linux	before 6.12.101-1	6.12.101-1
Debian:14	linux	before 7.1.6-1	7.1.6-1

Same product

linux: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2026-74705udp: fix potential use-after-free in tunnel segmentation
40Plan
CVE-2026-74612veth: fix skb length accounting after XDP frag adjustment
40Plan
CVE-2026-74475vxlan: use neigh_ha_snapshot() in route_shortcircuit()
40Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2026-68161Aug 10, 2026 · sctp: close UDP tunnel sockets during netns teardown
39Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2026-68162Aug 10, 2026 · sctp: avoid auth_enable sysctl UAF during netns teardown
31Monitor
Later →CVE-2026-68179Aug 10, 2026 · misc: nsm: only unlock nsm_dev on post-lock error paths
33Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

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

Product / package	Fixed version	Source
Linux Linux	1996639f824ce9468395cdb7bcb8f467fa787e77	Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux	1da310b94504d42001e9c32c43c5dc105b777e5f	Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux	3b231f1e9990f4c21220d0a69733ce2105891ff9	Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux	9e9a82d00c3d10129fc310a7547b24a679d5d920	Vendor (CNA)
debian:linux	6.12.101-1 · Debian:13	Package registry (OSV)
debian:linux-6.12	6.12.101-1~deb12u1 · Debian:12	Package registry (OSV)

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.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

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

CVE-2026-681170 days aparttipc: clear sock->sk on the failed-insert path in tipc_sk_create()
39Monitor
CVE-2026-681270 days apartila: reload IPv6 header after pskb_may_pull in checksum adjust
39Monitor
CVE-2026-681440 days apartphonet: pep: fix use-after-free in pep_get_sb()
39Monitor
CVE-2026-681560 days apartlibceph: refresh auth->authorizer_buf{,_len} after authorizer update
39Monitor
CVE-2026-683810 days apartksmbd: pin conn during async oplock break notification
39Monitor
CVE-2026-684260 days apartxfrm: fix stale skb->prev after async crypto steals a GSO segment
39Monitor

Chain candidates

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

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Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

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

National notice (Türkiye Cybersecurity Directorate / USOM)

Official security notices citing this record; remediation advice is on the agency's page.

TR-26-0800 · Aug 11, 2026(Linux Kernel Güvenlik Bildirimi)

All national notices →

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

1free(dev->buf);
2/* ... another thread is still running ... */
3process(dev->buf);

Fixed

1lock(&dev->lock);
2free(dev->buf);
3dev->buf = NULL;
4unlock(&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

SSVC exploitation— → noneOct 16, 2026, 5:07 PM UTC
Fix✗ → ✓Sep 28, 2026, 10:10 PM UTC

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

References

git.kernel.org/stable/c/1996639f824ce9468395cdb7bcb8f467fa787e77

Show all references (3 more)

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

All records