# CVE-2026-46302: selinux: allow multiple opens of /sys/fs/selinux/policy

> A local attacker can block other processes from reading the SELinux policy by holding the single open file handle, causing a 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 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-89636, BELL-CVE-2026-46302, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-46302, GHSA-m47f-j4g8-cj3f, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-46302, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-46302, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-46302, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-46302, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-46302, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-46302

## What is CVE-2026-46302?

CVE-2026-46302 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 Jun 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:

selinux: allow multiple opens of /sys/fs/selinux/policy

Currently there can only be a single open of /sys/fs/selinux/policy at
any time. This allows any process to block any other process from
reading the kernel policy. The original motivation seems to have been
a mix of preventing an inconsistent view of the policy size and
preventing userspace from allocating kernel memory without bound, but
this is arguably equally bad. Eliminate the policy_opened flag and
shrink the critical section that the policy mutex is held. While we
are making changes here, drop a couple of extraneous BUG_ONs.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-46302?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-46302?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-46302 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-46302 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-2026-46302 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-46302 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 Jun 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-2026-46302 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-2026-46302/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-46302/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-46302
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-46302
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-46302

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-46302/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.