GHSA-78fw-h7fp-fffhHighCVSS 7.8
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf/core: Fix refcount bug...
🔗 CVE IDs covered (1)
📋 Description
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 (5)
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23248
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77de62ad3de3967818c3dbe656b7336ebee461d2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac7ecb65af170a7fc193e7bd8be15dac84ec6a56
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c27dea9f50ed525facb62ef647dddc4722456e07
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-78fw-h7fp-fffh