CVE-2026-46287
Linux Kernel 6.6 – 6.6.140
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2026-46287 is a medium-severity Reachable Assertion (CWE-617) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 2th 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.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-35152
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: txgbe: fix RTNL assertion warning when remove module For the copper NIC with external PHY, the driver called phylink_connect_phy() during probe and phylink_disconnect_phy() during remove. It caused an RTNL…
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assertion warning in phylink_disconnect_phy() upon module remove. To fix this, add rtnl_lock() and rtnl_unlock() around the phylink_disconnect_phy() in remove function. ------------[ cut here ]------------ RTNL: assertion failed at drivers/net/phy/phylink.c (2351) WARNING: drivers/net/phy/phylink.c:2351 at phylink_disconnect_phy+0xd8/0xf0 [phylink], CPU#0: rmmod/4464 Modules linked in: ... CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 4464 Comm: rmmod Kdump: loaded Not tainted 7.0.0-rc4+ Hardware name: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7E16/X670E GAMING PLUS WIFI (MS-7E16), BIOS 1.90 12/31/2024 RIP: 0010:phylink_disconnect_phy+0xe4/0xf0 [phylink] Code: 5b 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f 5d 31 c0 31 d2 31 f6 31 ff e9 3a 38 8f e7 48 8d 3d 48 87 e2 ff ba 2f 09 00 00 48 c7 c6 c1 22 24 c0 <67> 48 0f b9 3a e9 34 ff ff ff 66 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 RSP: 0018:ffffce7288363ac0 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff89654b2a1a00 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 000000000000092f RSI: ffffffffc02422c1 RDI: ffffffffc0239020 RBP: ffffce7288363ae8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff8964c4022000 R13: ffff89654fce3028 R14: ffff89654ebb4000 R15: ffffffffc0226348 FS: 0000795e80d93780(0000) GS:ffff896c52857000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00005b528b592000 CR3: 0000000170d0f000 CR4: 0000000000f50ef0 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> txgbe_remove_phy+0xbb/0xd0 [txgbe] txgbe_remove+0x4c/0xb0 [txgbe] pci_device_remove+0x41/0xb0 device_remove+0x43/0x80 device_release_driver_internal+0x206/0x270 driver_detach+0x4a/0xa0 bus_remove_driver+0x83/0x120 driver_unregister+0x2f/0x60 pci_unregister_driver+0x40/0x90 txgbe_driver_exit+0x10/0x850 [txgbe] __do_sys_delete_module.isra.0+0x1c3/0x2f0 __x64_sys_delete_module+0x12/0x20 x64_sys_call+0x20c3/0x2390 do_syscall_64+0x11c/0x1500 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? do_syscall_64+0x15a/0x1500 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? do_fault+0x312/0x580 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? __handle_mm_fault+0x9d5/0x1040 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? count_memcg_events+0x101/0x1d0 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? handle_mm_fault+0x1e8/0x2f0 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? do_user_addr_fault+0x2f8/0x820 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? irqentry_exit+0xb2/0x600 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? exc_page_fault+0x92/0x1c0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation finds reachable assertions during development.
Security engineering principles discourage use of assertions for handling untrusted input.
Validating untrusted inputs structurally prevents attacker data from reaching and triggering assertions.
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 prevent unsafe assertions from being coded in reachable paths.
Runtime monitoring of software can detect assertion-triggered crashes as adverse events.
Vulnerability identification processes can discover and record reachable-assertion flaws before deployment.
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 reachable assertions before release, reducing the likelihood of exploitation.
Secure development lifecycle mandates defensive coding and input validation that prevent reachable assertions from being triggered by untrusted data.
Application security requirements can specify that assertions must not be reachable from attacker-controlled inputs.
Secure architecture principles discourage the use of assertions for runtime error handling that an attacker could exploit.
Secure coding standards explicitly ban the use of assert() or equivalent statements that can be triggered by external input.