New Linux pedit COW Exploit Enables Root Access by Poisoning Cached Binaries

A flaw in the Linux kernel’s traffic-control subsystem can let a local unprivileged user gain root on affected systems.

CVE-2026-46331, nicknamed “pedit COW,” is an out-of-bounds write in the packet-editing action (act_pedit) that corrupts shared page-cache memory. A public, working exploit appeared within a day of the CVE assignment on June 16. Red Hat rates the flaw as