# CVE-2026-74438: crypto: sun4i-ss - Remove insecure and unused rng_alg

> A buffer overflow in the unused sun4i-ss random number generator allows potential code execution or denial of service, fixed by removing the insecure code.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 15 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-74438, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74438, GHSA-pqhh-48h7-jg73, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74438

## What is CVE-2026-74438?

CVE-2026-74438 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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:

crypto: sun4i-ss - Remove insecure and unused rng_alg

Remove sun4i_ss_rng, as it is insecure and unused:

- It has multiple vulnerabilities.  sun4i_ss_prng_seed() is missing
  locking and has a buffer overflow.  sun4i_ss_prng_generate() fails to
  fill the entire buffer with cryptographic random bytes, because it
  rounds the destination length down and also doesn't actually wait for
  the hardware to be ready before pulling bytes from it.

- No user of this code is known.  It's usable only theoretically via the
  "rng" algorithm type of AF_ALG.  But userspace actually just uses the
  actual Linux RNG (/dev/random etc) instead.  And rng_algs don't
  contribute entropy to the actual Linux RNG either.  (This may have
  been confused with hwrng, which does contribute entropy.)

The sun4i_ss_prng_seed() buffer overflow was reported by Tianchu Chen
and discovered by Atuin - Automated Vulnerability Discovery Engine

There's no point in fixing all these vulnerabilities individually when
this is unused code, so let's just remove it.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74438?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-74438?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-74438 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74438 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-74438 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-74438 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 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-2026-74438 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: 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-2026-74438/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74438/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-74438
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-74438
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-74438

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74438/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.