Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in FreeBSD's ptrace Feature
CVE-2026-45253

8.4HIGH

Key Information:

Vendor

FreeBSD

Status
FreeBSD
Vendor
CVE Published:
21 May 2026

What is CVE-2026-45253?

A vulnerability exists in FreeBSD's ptrace feature due to improper validation of parameters in syscall and __syscall meta-system calls. This flaw permits unprivileged local users with debugging access to execute arbitrary code in the kernel, potentially leading to a complete system compromise. Careful consideration is required to mitigate risks associated with this vulnerability.

Affected Version(s)

FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE

FreeBSD 14.4-RELEASE

FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE

References

https://security.freebsd.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-26:21....
vendor-advisory

CVSS V3.1

Score:
8.4
Severity:
HIGH
Confidentiality:
High
Integrity:
High
Availability:
High
Attack Vector:
Local
Attack Complexity:
Low
Privileges Required:
None
User Interaction:
None
Scope:
Unchanged

Timeline

  • Vulnerability published

  • Vulnerability Reserved

Credit

Yuxiang Yang, Yizhou Zhao, Ao Wang, Xuewei Feng, Qi Li, and Ke Xu from Tsinghua University using GLM-5.1 from Z.ai
Ryan at Calif.io
.