Akamai Linode outage, May 2026: [DirtyFrag] Linux Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Akamai Linode reported and resolved an incident: [DirtyFrag] Linux Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. It lasted 59 days.

Resolved

From Akamai Linode's official status page, in their words.

What happened

Started
Resolved
Duration
59 days
Impact
minor
Affected
US-East (Newark), Linode.com, US-East (Newark) Block Storage, US-East (Newark) NodeBalancers, US-East (Newark) Backups, US-East (Newark) Object Storage, US-East (Newark) Linode Kubernetes Engine, US-East (Newark), Cloud Manager and API, US-Central (Dallas), US-Central (Dallas) Block Storage, US-Central (Dallas) NodeBalancers

Why it happened

Akamai Linode has not given a cause in its updates. We never guess one.

This incident on the Akamai Linode status page

Timeline

Newest first. From Akamai Linode's official status page, in their words.

  1. resolved

    We have completed our investigation and response to the "DirtyFrag" (CVE-2026-43500, CVE-2026-43284) and "Fragnesia" (CVE-2026-46300) vulnerabilities. We have published documentation articles with detailed guidance on available mitigations and recommended actions for affected systems. Customers can find more information and step-by-step instructions here: https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/cve-2026-31431-copy-fail-mitigation/ https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/dirty-frag-mitigation/ We encourage all customers to review the article and apply the appropriate mitigations to their environments. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact us at 855-454-6633 (+1-609-380-7100 Intl.) or email support@linode.com for assistance.

  2. investigating

    We are responding to the publication of the most recent variation of the CopyFail[1] adjacent vulnerabilities “DirtyFrag” and “Fragnesia” with additional updates while we wait for upstream OS providers to release patches. Please see our detailed advisory[2] for more information on the current status, possible mitigation mechanisms, and our recommended actions. We will provide another update when more OS images have been updated and/or additional attack vectors are discovered. [1] https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/cve-2026-31431-copy-fail-mitigation/ [2] https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/dirty-frag-mitigation/

  3. investigating

    We are responding to the publication of the most recent variation of the CopyFail[1] adjacent vulnerabilities “DirtyFrag” and “Fragnesia” with additional updates while we wait for upstream OS providers to release patches. Please see our detailed advisory[2] for more information on the current status, possible mitigation mechanisms, and our recommended actions. We will provide another update when more OS images have been updated and/or additional attack vectors are discovered. [1] https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/cve-2026-31431-copy-fail-mitigation/ [2] https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/dirty-frag-mitigation/

  4. investigating

    We have updated our latest Linode kernel to version 7.0.5, which contains the upstream fix from kernel.org for the DirtyFrag vulnerabilities as well as the previous fixes for the recent CopyFail vulnerability. This kernel is available in Cloud Manager and we recommend customers using the Linode-compiled kernel update their configurations to this kernel. We are in parallel tracking the upstream Linux distributions and will provide another update when fixed versions have been released.

  5. investigating

    Akamai is aware of the recently disclosed “DirtyFrag”[1] vulnerability that followed the “CopyFail”[2] disclosure. This vulnerability is very similar in nature and has a similar impact, exploit path, and mitigation approach. We have not observed any related malicious exploits targeting our infrastructure and are continuing to address the vulnerability across our product portfolio and internal systems. As with “CopyFail”, we are advising customers to consider most Linux distributions to be at-risk until patched. Since the “DirtyFrag” vulnerability was disclosed prior to upstream patches having been made available, we are forced to wait for the different OS providers to create new releases or patches before we can integrate them into the versions we make available to customers. As this is a rapidly developing incident, we will provide further information regarding recommended actions, possible mitigations, and OS updates for all customers who may be affected. [1] https://github.com/V4bel/dirtyfrag/blob/master/assets/write-up.md [2] https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/cve-2026-31431-copy-fail-mitigation/

What this means for a business (and what to check now)

  • Retry anything that failed during the 59 days.
  • Enter any payments, bookings or jobs you took another way.
  • If a deadline fell inside the window, keep this page as your record of the outage.

The full guide: what to do when a service you rely on is down

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