A newly discovered Linux kernel vulnerability, dubbed "Bad Epoll" (CVE-2026-46242), allows unprivileged users to gain root access on affected systems, including desktops, servers, and Android devices. This use-after-free flaw occurs within the epoll subsystem due to a race condition during object cleanup. While the race window is extremely narrow—only six machine instructions—researcher Jaeyoung Chung developed an exploit with a 99% success rate that can even bypass Chrome's renderer sandbox.
Notably, this vulnerability resides in the same code segment where Anthropic's Mythos AI previously identified a different bug, yet the AI failed to detect this specific flaw. This highlights the persistent challenge of identifying complex race conditions that leave minimal runtime evidence for automated tools. Security administrators are urged to apply the upstream fix (commit a6dc643c) or distribution backports, as no viable workaround exists for this critical system component.
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