Vulnerability-Lookup

GHSA-78FW-H7FP-FFFH

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-03-18 12:31 – Updated: 2026-04-02 15:31

Details

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.

Severity

7.8 (High)


                  
                    CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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{
  "affected": [],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-23248"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-362",
      "CWE-416"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": false,
    "github_reviewed_at": null,
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-03-18T11:16:16Z",
    "severity": "HIGH"
  },
  "details": "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.",
  "id": "GHSA-78fw-h7fp-fffh",
  "modified": "2026-04-02T15:31:36Z",
  "published": "2026-03-18T12:31:52Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23248"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77de62ad3de3967818c3dbe656b7336ebee461d2"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac7ecb65af170a7fc193e7bd8be15dac84ec6a56"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c27dea9f50ed525facb62ef647dddc4722456e07"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ]
}

CVE-2026-23248 (GCVE-0-2026-23248)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-03-18 10:05 – Updated: 2026-10-19 18:35

Title

perf/core: Fix refcount bug and potential UAF in perf_mmap

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.

Severity

7.8 (High)


                        
                          CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

SSVC

Exploitation: none Automatable: no Technical Impact: total

CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)

Decision recorded 2026-10-16 15:06 UTC

CWE

CWE-362 - Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')

Assigner

Linux CNA under the mitre root

CNA scorecard D 53/100 over 6638 records in the last 180 days details

References

3 references

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c27dea9f50ed525fa…
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac7ecb65af170a7fc…
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77de62ad3de396781…

Impacted products

2 products

Vendor	Product	Version
Linux	Linux	Affected: b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf , < c27dea9f50ed525facb62ef647dddc4722456e07 (git) Affected: b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf , < ac7ecb65af170a7fc193e7bd8be15dac84ec6a56 (git) Affected: b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf , < 77de62ad3de3967818c3dbe656b7336ebee461d2 (git)
Linux	Linux	Affected: 6.14 Unaffected: 0 , < 6.14 (semver) Unaffected: 6.18.17 , ≤ 6.18.* (semver) Unaffected: 6.19.7 , ≤ 6.19.* (semver) Unaffected: 7.0 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)

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Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

Vulnerability timeline

Sightings and recorded dates, grouped by day · UTC

Order JSON

How durations are calculated

Following the VTEM framework (Black Hat USA 2015), time to patch starts when the vendor or a coordinator was informed, total time to patch at discovery, and disclosure to patch at public disclosure; vendor response time runs from the report to its acknowledgement. Time to exploit and time unpatched start at the earliest discovery or report, falling back to public disclosure. Unpatched time ends at the first recorded patch, or the calculation time when no patch is recorded. Exploitation to patch shows the interval between those two events; a published proof of concept is a public exploit, not exploitation.

Each result shows its source dates. A negative interval means the end event came first; when date-only inputs leave the order open, the result says so. Date-only inputs are approximate. The earliest evidence wins: KEV report dates and sightings are labelled as such. Records describing another vulnerability are listed but never calculated from, and a PoC alone does not establish exploitation. Missing patch evidence does not prove that no patch exists. Filters below change the event list only.

Publication & reservation Sightings KEV catalogs Other timestamps

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The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base model, served locally by ML-Gateway. They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.

Related by attack behaviour

Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.

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