Summary
This Linux kernel local privilege escalation affects the xfrm ESP receive path in esp4/esp6 when UDP-encapsulated ESP packets carry shared pipe-backed fragments. A local attacker can combine user and network namespaces, MSG_SPLICE_PAGES, and crafted ESP-in-UDP traffic so the kernel decrypts in place over memory it does not privately own. That can turn attacker-controlled bytes into a page-cache write primitive and be used to corrupt privileged files or binaries and gain root; Microsoft also reports limited in-the-wild activity tied to su-based privilege escalation.
Why Planned Fix?
4/6Exploitation Details
Modify page-cache-backed data and escalate to root
Full System CompromiseAffected Software
| Product | Affected Versions |
|---|---|
| Linux kernel | approximately 4.14 and later (2017 onward) through patched vendor builds |
Open-source operating system kernel used by Linux distributions to manage hardware, processes, memory, filesystems, and networking.
Affected Componentxfrm ESP receive path in esp4/esp6; ESP-in-UDP handling of shared skb fragments.
xfrm ESP receive path in esp4/esp6; ESP-in-UDP handling of shared skb fragments.
Blacklist the esp4, esp6, and rxrpc modules with modprobe.d, unload them if present, and for ESP-only mitigation on systems that must keep IPsec available, disable unprivileged user namespaces; expect IPsec or AFS/RxRPC functionality to break.
Blacklist the esp4, esp6, and rxrpc modules with modprobe.d, unload them if present, and for ESP-only mitigation on systems that must keep IPsec available, disable unprivileged user namespaces; expect IPsec or AFS/RxRPC functionality to break.
Not available
Install a kernel package that includes the upstream ESP fix. AlmaLinux has released patched kernels 4.18.0-553.123.2.el8_10, 5.14.0-611.54.3.el9_7, and 6.12.0-124.55.2.el10_1 or later; other distributions should apply their vendor kernel update that backports the same fix.
Install a kernel package that includes the upstream ESP fix. AlmaLinux has released patched kernels 4.18.0-553.123.2.el8_10, 5.14.0-611.54.3.el9_7, and 6.12.0-124.55.2.el10_1 or later; other distributions should apply their vendor kernel update that backports the same fix.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Worse than 1% of all CVEs
No known threat actors
NVD Data
Description Summary
CVSS Base Score
CVSS Vector (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H)
Affected Software (CPE) (1)
- •cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Sources
| Source | Article |
|---|---|
| nvd.nist.gov | CVE-2026-43284 Detail |
| access.redhat.com | RHSB-2026-003 Dirty Frag - Linux Kernel (CVE-2026-43284) |
| almalinux.org | Dirty Frag (CVE-2026-43284, CVE-2026-43500) Patches Released |
| www.microsoft.com | Active attack: Dirty Frag Linux vulnerability expands post-compromise risk |
| ubuntu.com | CVE-2026-43284 |
| ubuntu.com | Dirty Frag Linux kernel local privilege escalation vulnerability mitigations |
| www.openwall.com | Dirty Frag: Universal Linux LPE |
| www.tenable.com | CVE-2026-43284 |
| blog.qualys.com | Dirty Frag: Using the Page Caches as an Attack Surface |
| support.plesk.com | Vulnerability CVE-2026-43284: Dirty Frag |
| penligent.ai | Dirty Frag CVE, Linux root through page-cache frags |
Priority History
Initial analysis