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Proof-of-Concept Exploit Released for Linux ‘Bad Epoll’ Root Access Vulnerability

Technical details and proof-of-concept (PoC) code targeting a recent Linux kernel vulnerability that could allow unprivileged processes to gain root privileges on desktops, servers, and Android phones are now public.

The security defect, tracked as CVE-2026-46242 (CVSS score of 7.8) and referred to as Bad Epoll, is described as a race-condition use-after-free bug in epoll, the Linuxkernel’s I/O event notification facility.

Instead of asking programs to poll many file descriptors one by one, the Linux kernel maintains an epoll instance with an interest list and a ready list of file descriptors and return descriptors.

Bad Epoll is a close-vs-close race condition in epoll’s file-release path that leads to use-after-free.

If one eventpoll list of file descriptors monitors another and the two are closed simultaneously, one frees an object while the other continues to write to it.

The flaw was discovered by Jaeyoung Chung of Seoul National University’s...

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Proof-of-Concept Exploit Released for Linux ‘Bad Epoll’ Root Access Vulnerability

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