CVE-2026-74267
CRITICALCVE-2026-74267 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) vulnerability in Kernel. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2026-74267 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
net/sched: sch_codel: Do not call qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog during peek before restoring qlen
Real-World Exposure
KernelReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Linux packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/sched: sch_codel: Do not call qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog during peek before restoring qlen
Whenever codel drops packets during peek, it calls qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog. An issue arises because it calls qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog before it reincrements the qlen. If qlen drops to zero, but peek returns an skb, the parent's qlen_notify callback will be executed even though codel still has 1 packet on the queue and, thus, will mistakenly deactivate the parent's class causing issues like a wild memory access when qfq has codel as a child:
[ 36.339843][ T370] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xfbd59c0000000024: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI [ 36.340408][ T370] KASAN: maybe wild-memory-access in range [0xdead000000000120-0xdead000000000127] [ 36.340737][ T370] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 370 Comm: tc Not tainted 7.1.0-rc5-00287-g66e13b626592 #87 PREEMPT(full) [ 36.341113][ T370] Hardware name: Bochs Bochs, BIOS Bochs 01/01/2011 [ 36.341357][ T370] RIP: 0010:qfq_deactivate_agg (include/linux/list.h:1029 (discriminator 2) include/linux/list.h:1043 (discriminator 2) net/sched/sch_qfq.c:1369 (discriminator 2) net/sched/sch_qfq.c:1395 (discriminator 2)) sch_qfq [ 36.342221][ T370] RSP: 0018:ffff8881100ef370 EFLAGS: 00010216 [ 36.342422][ T370] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8881058a9568 RCX: dffffc0000000000 [ 36.342664][ T370] RDX: 1ffff11021064dc3 RSI: ffff888108326e00 RDI: dffffc0000000000 [ 36.342905][ T370] RBP: ffff8881058a8280 R08: dead000000000122 R09: 1bd5a00000000024 [ 36.343140][ T370] R10: fffffbfff2940329 R11: fffffbfff2940329 R12: 0000000000000000 [ 36.343383][ T370] R13: dead000000000100 R14: ffff8881058a9580 R15: ffff8881058a9578 [ 36.343631][ T370] FS: 00007fc04b0ca780(0000) GS:ffff888184fef000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 36.343911][ T370] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 36.344116][ T370] CR2: 0000557c02c02000 CR3: 000000010e0ba000 CR4: 0000000000750ef0 [ 36.344359][ T370] PKRU: 55555554 [ 36.344481][ T370] Call Trace: ... [ 36.345054][ T370] qfq_reset_qdisc (net/sched/sch_qfq.c:357 net/sched/sch_qfq.c:1487) sch_qfq [ 36.345222][ T370] qdisc_reset (net/sched/sch_generic.c:1057) [ 36.345503][ T370] __qdisc_destroy (net/sched/sch_generic.c:1096) [ 36.345677][ T370] qdisc_graft (net/sched/sch_api.c:1062 net/sched/sch_api.c:1053 net/sched/sch_api.c:1159) [ 36.346335][ T370] tc_get_qdisc (net/sched/sch_api.c:1528 net/sched/sch_api.c:1556)
Fix this by only calling qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog in peek after the qlen is restored.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐧Linux | Kernel | ≥ 5.11.0&&< 5.10.261 | 5.10.261 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for Kernel. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update Kernel to 5.10.261 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-74267 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2026-74267 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2026-74267. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-74267 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2026-74267 across Linux dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.