# CVE-2026-23268 — Linux

> As of 2026-08-05, CVE-2026-23268 is a HIGH-severity vulnerability in Linux, CVSS v3.1 7.8, EPSS 0.1% (2.8th percentile). Threadlinqs Intelligence links 1 tracked threat campaign to CVE-2026-23268, most recently “Linux Kernel LPE Surge: Copy Fail (CVE-2026-31431), Dirty Frag/Fragnesia (CVE-2026-43284/CVE-2026-43500/CVE-2026-46300), and CrackArmor AppArmor Flaws vs. Defense-in-Depth Mitigations”.

**Last updated:** 2026-08-05

## What is CVE-2026-23268?

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: apparmor: fix unprivileged local user can do privileged policy management An unprivileged local user can load, replace, and remove profiles by opening the apparmorfs interfaces, via a confused deputy attack, by passing the opened fd to a privileged process, and getting the privileged process to write to the interface. This does require a privileged target that can be manipulated to do the write for the unprivileged process, but once such access is achieved full policy management is possible and all the possible implications that implies: removing confinement, DoS of system or target applications by denying all execution, by-passing the unprivileged user namespace restriction, to exploiting kernel bugs for a local privilege escalation. The policy management interface can not have its permissions simply changed from 0666 to 0600 because non-root processes need to be able to load policy to different policy namespaces. Instead ensure the task writing the interface has privileges that are a subset of the task that opened the interface. This is already done via policy for confined processes, but unconfined can delegate access to the opened fd, by-passing the usual policy check.

Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw requires local access to the host, needs low-privilege credentials, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 221 days ago.

## Severity and exploitation probability

- **CVSS v3.1 base score:** 7.8 — HIGH (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **EPSS (FIRST):** 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2.8% of all scored CVEs
- **CISA KEV:** Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- **Threadlinqs priority:** 6/10 — a Threadlinqs composite of the CVSS base score, the EPSS percentile and public exploit availability
- **Published:** 2026-03-18, last modified 2026-08-05

## Is CVE-2026-23268 being exploited?

Weaponised exploit code for CVE-2026-23268 is publicly available. 1 public proof-of-concept repository is tracked for this identifier. It currently carries a trending score of 14 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

- [trickest/cve](https://github.com/trickest/cve/blob/main/2026/CVE-2026-23268.md) (trickest)

## Affected products and versions

- [Linux](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/vendors/linux): Linux

## How to fix CVE-2026-23268

No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-23268 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.

## Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-23268

1 tracked threat in the Threadlinqs corpus references CVE-2026-23268, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.

- [Linux Kernel LPE Surge: Copy Fail (CVE-2026-31431), Dirty Frag/Fragnesia (CVE-2026-43284/CVE-2026-43500/CVE-2026-46300), and CrackArmor AppArmor Flaws vs. Defense-in-Depth Mitigations](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-2424) — HIGH · 2026-05-29

## Sources

Enriched from CVE.org, FIRST EPSS, GitHub Security Advisories, public proof-of-concept repositories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on 2026-10-10.

**Other references**

- [git.kernel.org](https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a407a078cd41b5261b99d822af784bd9f136eb4d)
- [git.kernel.org (4cafce4d6d0a66ec27e3af5637c11901d60189fa)](https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4cafce4d6d0a66ec27e3af5637c11901d60189fa)
- [git.kernel.org (33ee909702e047c94aaf41d4eea35626d509802c)](https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/33ee909702e047c94aaf41d4eea35626d509802c)
- [git.kernel.org (17debf5586020790b5717f96e5e6a3ca5bb961ab)](https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/17debf5586020790b5717f96e5e6a3ca5bb961ab)
- [git.kernel.org (0fc63dd9170643d15c25681fca792539e23f4640)](https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0fc63dd9170643d15c25681fca792539e23f4640)

_Showing 5 of 9 recorded references._

Canonical: https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cve/CVE-2026-23268
Full detection coverage and IOCs for threats exploiting CVE-2026-23268 via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier): https://intel.threadlinqs.com/mcp