What is CVE-2026-43168?

CVE-2026-43168 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, affecting Linux kernel versions from 2.6.32 onward and patched in 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. CVE-2026-43168 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-43168?

CVE-2026-43168 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-43168?

Yes, CVE-2026-43168 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2026-43168 actively exploited?

CVE-2026-43168 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

CVE-2026-43168

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ocfs2: fix reflink preserve cleanup issue commit c06c303832ec ("ocfs2: fix xattr array entry __counted_by error") doesn't handle all cases and the cleanup job for preserved xattr entries still has bug: - the 'last' pointer should be shifted by one unit after cleanup an array entry. - current code logic doesn't cleanup the first entry when xh_count is 1. Note, commit c06c303832ec is also a bug fix for 0fe9b66c65f3.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2026-05-06

Last modified 2026-05-13

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

5.5

out of 10

Medium

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

Low

Integrity

None

Availability

High

Vector string

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 2.6.32 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.16, 6.19.6, 7.0 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 2.6.32

Fixed in

✓ 5.10.252 5.10.x ✓ 5.15.202 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.165 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.128 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.75 6.12.x ✓ 6.18.16 6.18.x ✓ 6.19.6 6.19.x ✓ 7.0

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2026-43168 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/02acc9f72365e50eb45a56b7dacb9114ca3b503c
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2f4daccd9d9b8b2952df7878df8c2e8ba6439398
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3bdc3766aafb052aef4baadef455a84c1c0a059d
Patch

8 patch commits total View all on NVD

Details

CVE ID CVE-2026-43168

Severity Medium

CVSS score 5.5 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2026-05-06

Modified 2026-05-13

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-43168?

CVE-2026-43168 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 2.6.32 onward and has been patched in 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. CVE-2026-43168 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-43168?

CVE-2026-43168 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-43168?

Yes — CVE-2026-43168 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2026-43168 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2026-43168 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.