Linux Kernel Vulnerability Affecting Process Namespace Management

CVE-2026-99249

What is CVE-2026-99249?

A race condition exists in the Linux kernel related to process management within pid namespaces. When the initialization of a pid namespace exits, the function zap_pid_ns_processes() attempts to wait until all processes within that namespace are cleared. However, if a tracer from outside the namespace fails to reap its traced zombies, this waiting period can extend indefinitely. Consequently, any attempts to suspend processes may fail due to persistent workloads caused by unfreed pids. This flaw particularly impacts Chromium-based browsers utilizing crashpad ptrace functionality, as they attach to threads of crashed renderers, failing to clear terminated processes, which can lead to significant operational issues.

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