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Dirty Frag Linux Bug Grants Root, Distributions Deploy Blocklists

5/8/2026

Summary

Story summary

Researchers disclosed a Linux kernel local-privilege-escalation flaw “Dirty Frag” that lets unprivileged users obtain root on distributions.
The bug resides in the decryption fast paths of the esp4, esp6 and rxrpc modules, exploits write primitives, and was reported on April 30, 2026 with a proof-of-concept that gains root in a command.
Mitigation blocklists and unloads the esp4, esp6 and rxrpc modules via a modprobe configuration on Ubuntu 24.04.4, RHEL 10.1, openSUSE Tumbleweed, CentOS Stream 10, AlmaLinux 10 and Fedora 44.

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Story summary

Researchers disclosed a Linux kernel local-privilege-escalation flaw “Dirty Frag” that lets unprivileged users obtain root on distributions.
The bug resides in the decryption fast paths of the esp4, esp6 and rxrpc modules, exploits write primitives, and was reported on April 30, 2026 with a proof-of-concept that gains root in a command.
Mitigation blocklists and unloads the esp4, esp6 and rxrpc modules via a modprobe configuration on Ubuntu 24.04.4, RHEL 10.1, openSUSE Tumbleweed, CentOS Stream 10, AlmaLinux 10 and Fedora 44.