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Researcher Says AI Helped Develop Linux Traffic-Control Race Into Root Exploit

CVE-2026-53264

July 28, 2026 · The Hacker News · Severity: HIGH

STAR Labs published a Linux kernel exploit for CVE-2026-53264 (CVSS 7.8), a use-after-free race condition in the network traffic-control subsystem that allows local privilege escalation to root on CentOS Stream 9. Researcher Lee Jia Jie used AI to discover the bug and accelerate exploit development. Full exploit source code is now public, though it requires specific kernel configurations and unprivileged user namespaces.

Key Takeaways

  • CVE-2026-53264 (CVSS 7.8) is a use-after-free race condition in the Linux network traffic-control subsystem
  • Allows local users to escalate privileges to root on targeted CentOS Stream 9 builds
  • Researcher Lee Jia Jie used AI to discover the bug and accelerate exploit development
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