CVE-2026-97918 json
tracing: Undo the registration when enabling the histogram trigger fails
published last mo. modified 21d ago also EUVD-2026-86772
- cvss
- —
- not scored
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.2%
- EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 10%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tracing: Undo the registration when enabling the histogram trigger fails
Commit 6f86bdeab633 ("tracing: Fix bad hist from corrupting named_triggers list") described how a trigger that is registered but not on file->triggers ends up freed while still on the global named_triggers list, and moved the registration down so that hist_trigger_enable() follows it immediately. One path still gets there. hist_trigger_enable() adds the trigger and takes it straight back out when the event cannot be enabled:
list_add_tail_rcu(&data->list, &file->triggers);
update_cond_flag(file);
if (trace_event_trigger_enable_disable(file, 1) < 0) { list_del_rcu(&data->list); update_cond_flag(file); ret--; }
so the list walk in hist_unregister_trigger() matches nothing, test stays NULL, and the ->free() that would call del_named_trigger() is skipped. out_unreg falls through to out_free, which frees the trigger anyway:
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in find_named_trigger+0xac/0xc0 Read of size 8 at addr ffff8880091d3160 by task init/1 find_named_trigger+0xac/0xc0 hist_register_trigger+0xc1/0xa00 event_hist_trigger_parse+0x3146/0x6af0 event_trigger_write+0xce/0x160 Freed by task 69: kfree+0x154/0x420 trigger_kthread_fn+0xfd/0x160
Leave the trigger where hist_unregister_trigger() can find it and let that undo the registration, which is the only code that knows all of what cmd_ops->init() took: the named list entry, the hist_pad reference, the reference on the trigger a named histogram is shared with, and the copied cmd_ops. It also pairs the failed trace_event_trigger_enable_disable(), whose sm_ref and buffered event reference are otherwise left behind.
Since ->free() releases trigger_data and, for a trigger that does not share its histogram, hist_data with it, out_unreg can no longer fall through to out_free. For a trigger that does share, hist_register_trigger() has already destroyed the caller's hist_data, so the fall-through was reading freed memory there as well.
Move the enable_timestamps check in hist_unregister_trigger() above the ->free() call for the same reason: hist_data does not outlive it once the trigger being removed is the one that owns it.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 6.6.160, 6.12.112, 6.18.53, 7.2.7, 7.3
- linux Debian 13 6.12.113-1
- linux Debian 14 7.2.7-1
- linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.113-1~deb12u1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97918
- linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42
- linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.17
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.18
- linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17
- linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42.1
- linux-oracle Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1015.16
- linux-hwe-7.0 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1
- linux-oem-7.0 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17
ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97918
Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0
- kernel-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 7.2.9-1.1
opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:12074-1
- kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.161.1-1
azure linux advisories AZL-104526
Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/880712b6f48103ba3a04b154ff076d45fe86dcec commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/c7ee2d5733574d4694f7c0035e4381f54c1fca27 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/51b07104d563d4be2be34158d3b9d922ca417642 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/bfa6bc11aef93a3d9db0ac9564b734849a9d959b commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/92383cef66791a0c63a2f27755cadbdb2fbf270b commit
Is CVE-2026-97918 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.
Check with FencerVendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2026-97918 updated cvss 5.5
kernel: tracing: Undo the registration when enabling the histogram trigger fails
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 morenot affected: vulnerable code not present
Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf
Exploit prediction
0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 10% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/880712b6f48103ba3a04b154ff076d45fe86dcec
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/c7ee2d5733574d4694f7c0035e4381f54c1fca27
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/51b07104d563d4be2be34158d3b9d922ca417642
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/bfa6bc11aef93a3d9db0ac9564b734849a9d959b
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/92383cef66791a0c63a2f27755cadbdb2fbf270b
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-97918
- NVD CVE-2026-97918
Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.