Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-43414 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-43414 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-43414?
- Critical severity, with a CVSS score of 9.8, published 8 May 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Linux Kernel qla2xxx driver; Linux Kernel 5.15.154 to 5.16, 6.1.84 to 6.2, 6.6.24 to 6.7, 6.7.12 to 6.8, 6.8.3 to 6.9, 6.9.1 to 6.19.9.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-43414?
- A patch was published on 2026-03-07: Initial patch committed to stable tree Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-43414 attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in an operating system.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-43414?
- Check whether you run Linux Kernel or Linux Kernel at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
A double free vulnerability exists in the qla2xxx driver within the Linux kernel, specifically in the qla24xx_els_dcmd_iocb() function. The root cause is an incorrect reference counting implementation where qla2x00_free_fcport() is explicitly called after kref_put() has already triggered the same cleanup via qla2x00_sp_release(). This occurs during error handling paths when an ELS (Extended Link Service) command fails. An attacker could potentially exploit this memory corruption to cause a kernel panic (DoS) or achieve escalated privileges. Patches have been released for multiple stable kernel branches including 5.15.y, 6.1.y, 6.6.y, and 6.9.y.
Affected products
- Linux Linux Kernel 5.15.154 to 5.16, 6.1.84 to 6.2, 6.6.24 to 6.7, 6.7.12 to 6.8, 6.8.3 to 6.9, 6.9.1 to 6.19.9
Timeline
- 2026-05-08: disclosed
- 2026-03-07: patched: Initial patch committed to stable tree
- 2026-05-08: advisory