CVE-2025-26601
Memory Safety in Redhat Enterprise Linux 7.0 … 9.0
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-26601 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 32th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2025-26601 is a use-after-free vulnerability (CWE-416) affecting X.Org and Xwayland. The flaw occurs when changing an alarm, as the values of the change mask are evaluated sequentially, updating trigger values before calling SyncInitTrigger(). If an error occurs during one of these changes, the function returns early without adding the new sync object, leading to a potential use-after-free when the alarm triggers. The vulnerability received a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and was published on 2025-02-25.
A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability with low attack complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation could result in high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability, potentially allowing arbitrary code execution, data corruption, or system crashes on affected systems running vulnerable versions of X.Org or Xwayland.
Red Hat has issued multiple security errata addressing this vulnerability, including RHSA-2025:2500, RHSA-2025:2502, RHSA-2025:2861, RHSA-2025:2862, and RHSA-2025:2865, which provide updated packages to mitigate the use-after-free flaw in supported products.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-5426
Vulnerability Data
A use-after-free flaw was found in X.Org and Xwayland. When changing an alarm, the values of the change mask are evaluated one after the other, changing the trigger values as requested, and eventually, SyncInitTrigger() is called. If one of the…
more
changes triggers an error, the function will return early, not adding the new sync object, possibly causing a use-after-free when the alarm eventually triggers.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
—
—
- 3 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
V1.4.3
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover use-after-free bugs through dynamic analysis or fuzzing.
Engineering principles can require memory-safe constructs or languages that structurally avoid introducing use-after-free.
Process isolation confines the blast radius of use-after-free memory corruption to a single execution domain.
Memory protection controls limit exploitation impact by blocking unauthorized code execution from dangling pointers.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices directly incorporate memory-safety tooling and reviews that prevent most use-after-free defects.
Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free issues via scanning or analysis but do not prevent their introduction.
Routine patching removes known use-after-free instances after they have been introduced in released software.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development can detect use-after-free bugs before release.
Secure SDLC mandates memory-safety practices that reduce use-after-free defects.
Application security requirements can specify memory-management rules that mitigate use-after-free.
Secure architecture principles include memory-safety design choices that limit use-after-free exposure.
Secure coding standards directly prescribe avoidance of use-after-free patterns.
Change-management processes help ensure memory-safety fixes are deployed consistently.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
- V-248592 OL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230279 RHEL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 9 (1 rule)
- V-257794 RHEL 9 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416