CVE-2026-23248 (GCVE-0-2026-23248)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5
Published
2026-03-18 10:05
Modified
2026-08-05 12:20
Severity ?
7.8 (High) - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf/core: Fix refcount bug and potential UAF in perf_mmap Syzkaller reported a refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free warning in perf_mmap. The issue is caused by a race condition between a failing mmap() setup and a concurrent mmap() on a dependent event (e.g., using output redirection). In perf_mmap(), the ring_buffer (rb) is allocated and assigned to event->rb with the mmap_mutex held. The mutex is then released to perform map_range(). If map_range() fails, perf_mmap_close() is called to clean up. However, since the mutex was dropped, another thread attaching to this event (via inherited events or output redirection) can acquire the mutex, observe the valid event->rb pointer, and attempt to increment its reference count. If the cleanup path has already dropped the reference count to zero, this results in a use-after-free or refcount saturation warning. Fix this by extending the scope of mmap_mutex to cover the map_range() call. This ensures that the ring buffer initialization and mapping (or cleanup on failure) happens atomically effectively, preventing other threads from accessing a half-initialized or dying ring buffer.
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
Linux Linux Version: b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf
Version: b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf
Version: b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf
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{
  "containers": {
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "kernel/events/core.c"
          ],
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          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
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              "version": "b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf",
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              "versionType": "git"
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          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "kernel/events/core.c"
          ],
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          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "6.14"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "6.14",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
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              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.18.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.18.17",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
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              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.19.7",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.0",
              "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
            }
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        }
      ],
      "cpeApplicability": [
        {
          "nodes": [
            {
              "cpeMatch": [
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "6.18.17",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "6.14",
                  "vulnerable": true
                },
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "6.19.7",
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                  "vulnerable": true
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                  "vulnerable": true
                }
              ],
              "negate": false,
              "operator": "OR"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nperf/core: Fix refcount bug and potential UAF in perf_mmap\n\nSyzkaller reported a refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free warning\nin perf_mmap.\n\nThe issue is caused by a race condition between a failing mmap() setup\nand a concurrent mmap() on a dependent event (e.g., using output\nredirection).\n\nIn perf_mmap(), the ring_buffer (rb) is allocated and assigned to\nevent-\u003erb with the mmap_mutex held. The mutex is then released to\nperform map_range().\n\nIf map_range() fails, perf_mmap_close() is called to clean up.\nHowever, since the mutex was dropped, another thread attaching to\nthis event (via inherited events or output redirection) can acquire\nthe mutex, observe the valid event-\u003erb pointer, and attempt to\nincrement its reference count. If the cleanup path has already\ndropped the reference count to zero, this results in a\nuse-after-free or refcount saturation warning.\n\nFix this by extending the scope of mmap_mutex to cover the\nmap_range() call. This ensures that the ring buffer initialization\nand mapping (or cleanup on failure) happens atomically effectively,\npreventing other threads from accessing a half-initialized or\ndying ring buffer."
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV3_1": {
            "baseScore": 7.8,
            "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
            "version": "3.1"
          },
          "scenarios": [
            {
              "lang": "en",
              "value": "AV:L - The vulnerability is triggered via the perf_event_open() syscall followed by mmap() on the resulting file descriptor, requiring local system access.\nAC:L - The attacker controls both sides of the race by spawning two threads that concurrently mmap() the same perf event fd. Per CVSS guidance, attacker-controlled races are AC:L.\nPR:L - Unprivileged local users can use perf_event_open() with exclude_kernel=1 and per-task events (cpu=-1) even with the default perf_event_paranoid=2, then mmap() the resulting fd to trigger the race.\nUI:N - No user interaction is needed; the attacker creates the perf event and triggers the race entirely on their own.\nS:U - This is a standard kernel use-after-free for privilege escalation within the same security authority; no VM escape or sandbox boundary crossing occurs.\nC:H - The UAF on the perf_buffer heap object allows the attacker to spray controlled data into the freed slab, enabling arbitrary kernel memory reads through the buffer\u0027s data page pointers and user_page.\nI:H - The freed perf_buffer contains function pointers (free_aux) and is accessed through multiple code paths, enabling heap spraying for arbitrary write primitives and control flow hijacking.\nA:H - The use-after-free reliably causes kernel crashes (refcount saturation warnings, oops, or panic) when the freed ring buffer is accessed."
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T12:20:56.308Z",
        "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
        "shortName": "Linux"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c27dea9f50ed525facb62ef647dddc4722456e07"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac7ecb65af170a7fc193e7bd8be15dac84ec6a56"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77de62ad3de3967818c3dbe656b7336ebee461d2"
        }
      ],
      "title": "perf/core: Fix refcount bug and potential UAF in perf_mmap",
      "x_generator": {
        "engine": "bippy-1.2.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
    "assignerShortName": "Linux",
    "cveId": "CVE-2026-23248",
    "datePublished": "2026-03-18T10:05:10.070Z",
    "dateReserved": "2026-01-13T15:37:45.989Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T12:20:56.308Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.2"
}


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