GHSA-GPP3-G5WP-8XHW
Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-07-19 12:30 – Updated: 2026-07-20 15:31In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
apparmor: fix use-after-free in rawdata dedup loop
aa_replace_profiles() walks ns->rawdata_list to dedup the incoming policy blob against entries already attached to existing profiles. Per the kernel-doc on struct aa_loaddata, list membership does not hold a reference: profiles hold pcount, and when the last pcount drops, do_ploaddata_rmfs() is queued on a workqueue that takes ns->lock and removes the entry. Between dropping the last pcount and the workqueue running, an entry remains on the list with pcount == 0.
aa_get_profile_loaddata() is an unconditional kref_get() on pcount, so when the dedup loop hits such an entry, refcount hardening reports
refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free.
inside aa_replace_profiles(), and the poisoned counter then trips "saturated" and "underflow" warnings on the subsequent uses of the same loaddata.
Before commit a0b7091c4de4 ("apparmor: fix race on rawdata dereference") the dedup path used a get_unless_zero-style helper on a single counter, so the existing "if (tmp)" guard was meaningful. The split-refcount refactor introduced aa_get_profile_loaddata(), which has plain kref_get() semantics, and the guard quietly became a no-op.
Introduce aa_get_profile_loaddata_not0(), matching the existing _not0 convention used by aa_get_profile_not0(), and use it for the rawdata_list dedup lookup so dying entries are skipped.
Reproduced on x86_64 with v7.1-rc5 in QEMU+KVM running Ubuntu 24.04 + stress-ng 0.17.06:
stress-ng --apparmor 1 --klog-check --timeout 60s
Without this patch the three refcount_t warnings fire within a few seconds. With it the same 60 s run is clean. Coverage is a smoke-test only; a longer soak with CONFIG_KASAN, CONFIG_KCSAN and CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING would be welcome from anyone with the cycles.
{
"affected": [],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2026-63827"
],
"database_specific": {
"cwe_ids": [],
"github_reviewed": false,
"github_reviewed_at": null,
"nvd_published_at": "2026-07-19T12:16:55Z",
"severity": "HIGH"
},
"details": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\napparmor: fix use-after-free in rawdata dedup loop\n\naa_replace_profiles() walks ns-\u003erawdata_list to dedup the incoming\npolicy blob against entries already attached to existing profiles.\nPer the kernel-doc on struct aa_loaddata, list membership does not\nhold a reference: profiles hold pcount, and when the last pcount\ndrops, do_ploaddata_rmfs() is queued on a workqueue that takes\nns-\u003elock and removes the entry. Between dropping the last pcount\nand the workqueue running, an entry remains on the list with\npcount == 0.\n\naa_get_profile_loaddata() is an unconditional kref_get() on\npcount, so when the dedup loop hits such an entry, refcount\nhardening reports\n\n refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free.\n\ninside aa_replace_profiles(), and the poisoned counter then\ntrips \"saturated\" and \"underflow\" warnings on the subsequent\nuses of the same loaddata.\n\nBefore commit a0b7091c4de4 (\"apparmor: fix race on rawdata\ndereference\") the dedup path used a get_unless_zero-style helper\non a single counter, so the existing \"if (tmp)\" guard was\nmeaningful. The split-refcount refactor introduced\naa_get_profile_loaddata(), which has plain kref_get() semantics,\nand the guard quietly became a no-op.\n\nIntroduce aa_get_profile_loaddata_not0(), matching the existing\n_not0 convention used by aa_get_profile_not0(), and use it for\nthe rawdata_list dedup lookup so dying entries are skipped.\n\nReproduced on x86_64 with v7.1-rc5 in QEMU+KVM running Ubuntu\n24.04 + stress-ng 0.17.06:\n\n stress-ng --apparmor 1 --klog-check --timeout 60s\n\nWithout this patch the three refcount_t warnings fire within a\nfew seconds. With it the same 60 s run is clean. Coverage is a\nsmoke-test only; a longer soak with CONFIG_KASAN, CONFIG_KCSAN\nand CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING would be welcome from anyone with the\ncycles.",
"id": "GHSA-gpp3-g5wp-8xhw",
"modified": "2026-07-20T15:31:47Z",
"published": "2026-07-19T12:30:24Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-63827"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15fd83a1e42ede15070968806bb6c8b1a5170688"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5e34fa9f6f7cd688ae153fff13139a5cf2d42339"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6f060496d03e4dc560a40f73770bd08335cb7a27"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a7a2890028f16e5b0af0bb005d80fcb32559cca3"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c3ca2631073b2cef06824fd2bfc452ff7a1023de"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce261a20b41db522e320a41bbf1292bf85af66df"
}
],
"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"
}
]
}
Sightings
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