In the Linux kernel the OpenVPN (ovpn) network device driver contains a race condition that can occur while an interface is being deleted. If a new peer is added via netlink during the narrow period where all peers have already been freed and the device is queued for deregistration, the netdevice can hang and fail to unregister. The result is a denial‑of‑service condition in which the affected network interface becomes unresponsive and cannot be removed until system restart, potentially disrupting traffic and system reliability.

The vulnerability affects the OpenVPN (ovpn) driver integrated into the Linux kernel. All distributions that ship a kernel with the vulnerable ovpn module are impacted – specifically any kernel version that has not yet been patched after commit 097d62df38314c14b88fab9096f3461baf158e2b. The vulnerable code resides in the general Linux kernel, not limited to any particular vendor, so every installation running the affected kernel is at risk.

The EPSS score is below 1 %, indicating that historical exploitation is very unlikely, and the issue is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. The flaw is a privilege‑bound race condition that requires a user with netlink or CAP_NET_ADMIN permissions to send a CMD_PEER_NEW message while an ovpn interface is in the process of being torn down. Because the attacker must be able to interact with the kernel’s netlink interface, the attack vector is local and privileged; remote exploitation is not feasible without additional compromise. The CVSS score is not supplied, so an official rating cannot be assigned, but the combination of a local privileged requirement, low EPSS, and the denial‑of‑service impact suggests a moderate overall risk for affected systems.