# CVE-2026-71227: Denial of service in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

> A local attacker can cause a persistent denial of service in applications using libkcapi by triggering an infinite loop in the AIO read function.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 22 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2026-71227, AZL-94661, BELL-CVE-2026-71227, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-71227, GHSA-c5mv-c5vm-62w5, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-71227

## What is CVE-2026-71227?

CVE-2026-71227 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 5 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A flaw was found in libkcapi. A local attacker can influence an application that uses the Asynchronous Input/Output (AIO) interface. By reusing an AIO-enabled handle after a prior completion error, the _kcapi_aio_read_all() function can enter a non-terminating wait loop. This can lead to a persistent denial of service, making the affected application or thread unresponsive.

Weakness: CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-71227?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Redhat Enterprise Linux, Redhat Hardened Images, Redhat Openshift Container Platform, Smuellerdd Libkcapi.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-71227?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-71227 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-71227 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Enterprise Linux

- [CVE-2018-14667](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-14667/): Red Hat JBoss RichFaces Framework Expression Language Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-20325](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-20325/): Missing fixes for CVE-2021-40438 and CVE-2021-26691 in the versions of httpd, as shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5.0, causes a securit (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-25011](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-25011/): Memory corruption in libwebp (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-25014](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-25014/): Other in libwebp (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2014-3585](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-3585/): Supply chain in redhat-upgrade-tool (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-71227 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-71227 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 5 Aug 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-2026-71227 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Redhat Enterprise Linux. 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-2026-71227/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-71227/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-71227
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-71227
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-71227

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-71227/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.