CVE-2026-52923 ipc: limit next_id allocation to the valid ID range

What is CVE-2026-52923?

CVE-2026-52923 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 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:

ipc: limit next_id allocation to the valid ID range

The checkpoint/restore sysctl path can request the next SysV IPC id through ids->next_id. ipc_idr_alloc() currently forwards that request to idr_alloc() with an open-ended upper bound.

If the valid tail of the SysV IPC id space is full, the allocation can spill beyond ipc_mni. The returned SysV IPC id still uses the normal index encoding, so later lookup and removal can target the wrong slot. This leaves the real IDR entry behind and breaks the IDR state for the object.

The bug is in ipc_idr_alloc() in the checkpoint/restore path.

1. ids->next_id is passed to:

idr_alloc(&ids->ipcs_idr, new, ipcid_to_idx(next_id), 0, ...)

2. The zero upper bound makes the allocation effectively open-ended. Once the valid SysV IPC tail is occupied, idr_alloc() can spill past ipc_mni and allocate an entry beyond the valid IPC id range.

3. The new object id is still encoded with the narrower SysV IPC index width:

new->id = (new->seq << ipcmni_seq_shift()) + idx

4. Later removal goes through ipc_rmid(), which uses:

ipcid_to_idx(ipcp->id)

That truncates the real IDR index. An object actually stored at a high index can then be removed as if it lived at a low in-range index.

5. For shared memory, shm_destroy() frees the current object anyway, but the real high IDR slot is left behind as a dangling pointer.

6. A subsequent walk of /proc/sysvipc/shm reaches the stale IDR entry and dereferences freed memory.

Prevent this by bounding the requested allocation to ipc_mni so the checkpoint/restore path fails once the valid range is exhausted.

Weakness: CWE-401, CWE-825, CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-52923?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-52923?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2026-52923 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52923 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code: 1 proofs of concept on GitHub.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as ALSA-2026:49851, ALSA-2026:49857, AZL-90638, BELL-CVE-2026-52923, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-52923, GHSA-m237-4jxg-w5jh and 10 more.