ptrace: slightly saner 'get_dumpable()' logic
58Vexday Risk Score
Patch soon. It has a working public exploit.
ssvc Attendcvss 7.1epss 1.5%
from disclosure to weapon1 days
Published on NVDMay 15
1st PoC+1d
metasploitMay 14
exploitation probability
1.5%top 28% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
nono source reports it
6 public exploit(s)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ptrace: slightly saner 'get_dumpable()' logic
The 'dumpability' of a task is fundamentally about the memory image of
the task - the concept comes from whether it can core dump or not - and
makes no sense when you don't have an associated mm.
And almost all users do in fact use it only for the case where the task
has a mm pointer.
But we have one odd special case: ptrace_may_access() uses 'dumpable' to
check various other things entirely independently of the MM (typically
explicitly using flags like PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS). Including for
threads that no longer have a VM (and maybe never did, like most kernel
threads).
It's not what this flag was designed for, but it is what it is.
The ptrace code does check that the uid/gid matches, so you do have to
be uid-0 to see kernel thread details, but this means that the
traditional "drop capabilities" model doesn't make any difference for
this all.
Make it all make a *bit* more sense by saying that if you don't have a
MM pointer, we'll use a cached "last dumpability" flag if the thread
ever had a MM (it will be zero for kernel threads since it is never
set), and require a proper CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability to override.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Affected products
Linux · Linuxpublic PoCs found — 6
githubgithub.com/0xBlackash/CVE-2026-46333★ 38githubgithub.com/KaraZajac/CHARON★ 7githubgithub.com/studiogangster/CVE-2026-46333★ 6githubgithub.com/st4rburn/public-passwd★ 2githubgithub.com/Aurillium/public-passwd★ 1cve_referencegithub.com/0xdeadbeefnetwork/ssh-keysign-pwn/unverified⚠ Public resources, to assess the exposure of systems you control or are authorized to test. Test only with authorization.
References
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19521https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19540https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19568https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19569https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19664https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19666https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19705https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19711https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19875https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20051https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20054https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20129