What is CVE-2026-74438?

CVE-2026-74438 is a High severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 7.8 out of 10, affecting Linux kernel versions from 4.14 onward and patched in 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145 and others. CVE-2026-74438 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-74438?

CVE-2026-74438 has a CVSS score of 7.8 out of 10, rated High severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-74438?

Yes, CVE-2026-74438 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 4.14 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2026-74438 actively exploited?

CVE-2026-74438 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

CVE-2026-74438

High

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.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2026-08-15

Last modified 2026-08-17

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

7.8

out of 10

High

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Vector string

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

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 4.14 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, 7.2 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 4.14

Fixed in

✓ 5.15.212 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.178 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.145 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.97 6.12.x ✓ 6.18.40 6.18.x ✓ 7.1.5 7.1.x ✓ 7.2

References

7 total

Showing 5 of 7 references View all on NVD

Details

CVE ID CVE-2026-74438

Severity High

CVSS score 7.8 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2026-08-15

Modified 2026-08-17

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-74438?

CVE-2026-74438 is a High severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 7.8 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 4.14 onward and has been patched in 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145 and others. CVE-2026-74438 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-74438?

CVE-2026-74438 has a CVSS score of 7.8 out of 10, rated High severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-74438?

Yes. CVE-2026-74438 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 4.14 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2026-74438 actively exploited?

No. CVE-2026-74438 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.