# CVE-2026-43402: linux: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kthread: consolidate kthread exit paths to preve... CVE-2026-43402 is fixed in 23 products on 1 platform, first by ALAS2023-2026-1596, released April 27, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Urgent. - Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-43402 - Priority: Urgent - CVSS: 9.8 (critical) - EPSS: 0.0056 - CISA KEV: not listed - Exploited (vendor report): no - Publicly disclosed: no - Published: Apr 27, 2026 ## Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kthread: consolidate kthread exit paths to prevent use-after-free Guillaume reported crashes via corrupted RCU callback function pointers during KUnit testing. The crash was traced back to the pidfs rhashtable conversion which replaced the 24-byte rb_node with an 8-byte rhash_head in struct pid, shrinking it from 160 to 144 bytes. struct kthread (without CONFIG_BLK_CGROUP) is also 144 bytes. With CONFIG_SLAB_MERGE_DEFAULT and SLAB_HWCACHE_ALIGN both round up to 192 bytes and share the same slab cache. struct pid.rcu.func and struct kthread.affinity_node both sit at offset 0x78. When a kthread exits via make_task_dead() it bypasses kthread_exit() and misses the affinity_node cleanup. free_kthread_struct() frees the memory while the node is still linked into the global kthread_affinity_list. A subsequent list_del() by another kthread writes through dangling list pointers into the freed and reused memory, corrupting the pid's rcu.func pointer. Instead of patching free_kthread_struct() to handle the missed cleanup, consolidate all kthread exit paths. Turn kthread_exit() into a macro that calls do_exit() and add kthread_do_exit() which is called from do_exit() for any task with PF_KTHREAD set. This guarantees that kthread-specific cleanup always happens regardless of the exit path - make_task_dead(), direct do_exit(), or kthread_exit(). Replace __to_kthread() with a new tsk_is_kthread() accessor in the public header. Export do_exit() since module code using the kthread_exit() macro now needs it directly. ## Where it's fixed | Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released | |---|---|---|---|---| | Linux | bpftool6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | bpftool6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-livepatch-6.18.20-20.229 amzn 2023 | 1:1.0-0.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-aarch64 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-x86_64 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-devel amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-headers amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-libbpf amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-libbpf-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-libbpf-devel amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-libbpf-static amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-modules-extra amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-modules-extra-common amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-tools amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-tools-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-tools-devel amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | linux Debian 14 | 6.19.10-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43402](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-43402.md) | May 15, 2026 | | Linux | perf6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | perf6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | python3-perf6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | | Linux | python3-perf6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-1596](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-1596.md) | Apr 27, 2026 | --- Data as of 2026-11-08T19:12:23Z UTC. 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