CVE-2026-46294
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm: fix a buffer overflow in ioctl processing Tony Asleson (using Claude) found a buffer overflow in dm-ioctl in the function retrieve_status: 1. The code in retrieve_status checks that the output string fits into the output buffer and writes the output string there 2. Then, the code aligns the "outptr" variable to the next 8-byte boundary: outptr = align_ptr(outptr); 3. The alignment doesn't check overflow, so outptr could point past the buffer end 4. The "for" loop is iterated again, it executes: remaining = len - (outptr - outbuf); 5. If "outptr" points past "outbuf + len", the arithmetics wraps around and the variable "remaining" contains unusually high number 6. With "remaining" being high, the code writes more data past the end of the buffer Luckily, this bug has no security implications because: 1. Only root can issue device mapper ioctls 2. The commonly used libraries that communicate with device mapper (libdevmapper and devicemapper-rs) use buffer size that is aligned to 8 bytes - thus, "outptr = align_ptr(outptr)" can't overshoot the input buffer and the bug can't happen accidentally
Affected versions
Linux kernel versions
2.6.12
and later are affected. Fixed in
5.10.258,
5.15.209,
6.1.175,
6.6.140,
6.12.88,
6.18.30,
7.0.7,
7.1-rc1
and their respective stable series.
References
The following references provide additional information about CVE-2026-46294 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2fa49cc884f6496a915c35621ba4da35649bf159
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/448ee8fb79c26a26599ffa4b2adeb4322d3d3d8c
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/526ff9126a0ae087b65726e1faf31114c718020d
Frequently asked questions
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What is CVE-2026-46294?
CVE-2026-46294 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 2.6.12 onward and has been patched in 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175 and others. CVE-2026-46294 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
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Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-46294?
Yes — CVE-2026-46294 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175 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.
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Is CVE-2026-46294 actively exploited?
No — CVE-2026-46294 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.