Linux Kernel AF_UNIX GC Vulnerability Enables Container Escape (CVE-2026-53361)

jedisct1 · x · 2026-08-12

A new Linux kernel vulnerability, CVE-2026-53361, has been disclosed. It is a use-after-free (UAF) bug residing in the AFUNIX socket garbage collector.

The core mechanism of the vulnerability involves a race condition where a concurrent MSGPEEK operation takes a reference on an in-flight socket that the garbage collector's census fails to track. Consequently, the collector may prematurely free a socket that is still active, leaving a dangling skbuff. This flaw can be exploited by unprivileged users to achieve container escape.

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