Researcher Says AI Helped Develop Linux Traffic-Control Race Into Root Exploit

Summary: STAR Labs published a Linux kernel exploit for CVE-2026-53264, a use-after-free race in the network traffic-control subsystem rated 7.8, that escalates an ordinary local user to root on CentOS Stream 9. Researcher Lee Jia Jie said AI helped him find the bug, build a KASAN proof of concept, and widen the race window, and the full exploit source is now public after the upstream fix landed on June 1, 2026.
What's compelling: The exploit needs a local foothold, unprivileged user namespaces, specific kernel options, and hardcoded ROP offsets, so exposure is narrower than the label suggests - but public code raises urgency for unpatched compatible systems, and as of July 28, 2026 Ubuntu still marked multiple maintained kernel packages vulnerable while SUSE listed the issue as pending.

Read the original at The Hacker News ↗

Topics: Vulnerabilities & Patching
Mentions: CVE-2026-53264
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