What is CVE-2026-43268?

CVE-2026-43268 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, affecting Linux kernel versions from 2.6.12 onward and patched in 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. CVE-2026-43268 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-43268?

CVE-2026-43268 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-2026-43268?

Yes, CVE-2026-43268 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 2.6.12 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2026-43268 actively exploited?

CVE-2026-43268 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

CVE-2026-43268

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hfsplus: pretend special inodes as regular files Since commit af153bb63a33 ("vfs: catch invalid modes in may_open()") requires any inode be one of S_IFDIR/S_IFLNK/S_IFREG/S_IFCHR/S_IFBLK/ S_IFIFO/S_IFSOCK type, use S_IFREG for special inodes.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2026-05-06

Last modified 2026-05-08

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 2.6.12 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

≥ 2.6.12

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-2026-43268 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/67407d6abc9520a8a4661285b3ed294eb73ff6e7
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/676bc99d0b3e356cdfec5d8204518e1aac14ec84
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/799c492a619a10322543d13e6d2a6d27335c868c
Patch

8 patch commits total View all on NVD

Details

CVE ID CVE-2026-43268

Severity Medium

CVSS score 5.5 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2026-05-06

Modified 2026-05-08

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-43268?

CVE-2026-43268 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 2.6.12 onward and has been patched in 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. CVE-2026-43268 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-43268?

CVE-2026-43268 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-2026-43268?

Yes — CVE-2026-43268 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.252, 5.15.202, 6.1.165 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 2.6.12 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2026-43268 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2026-43268 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.