# CVE-2026-43418: sched/mmcid: Prevent CID stalls due to concurrent forks

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's MM CID handling during concurrent forks can cause a system stall, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 8 May 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43418, GHSA-5r8w-mfmh-79h7, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43418

## What is CVE-2026-43418?

CVE-2026-43418 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sched/mmcid: Prevent CID stalls due to concurrent forks

A newly forked task is accounted as MMCID user before the task is visible
in the process' thread list and the global task list. This creates the
following problem:

 CPU1			CPU2
 fork()
   sched_mm_cid_fork(tnew1)
     tnew1->mm.mm_cid_users++;
     tnew1->mm_cid.cid = getcid()
-> preemption
			fork()
			  sched_mm_cid_fork(tnew2)
			    tnew2->mm.mm_cid_users++;
                            // Reaches the per CPU threshold
			    mm_cid_fixup_tasks_to_cpus()
			    for_each_other(current, p)
			         ....

As tnew1 is not visible yet, this fails to fix up the already allocated CID
of tnew1. As a consequence a subsequent schedule in might fail to acquire a
(transitional) CID and the machine stalls.

Move the invocation of sched_mm_cid_fork() after the new task becomes
visible in the thread and the task list to prevent this.

This also makes it symmetrical vs. exit() where the task is removed as CID
user before the task is removed from the thread and task lists.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43418?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-43418?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-43418 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43418 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-43418 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-43418 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43418 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43418/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43418/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43418
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43418
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43418

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43418/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.