CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-23138

MediumCVSS 5.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.14%

4th percentile - higher than 4% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the tracing subsystem has an infinite recursion when recording kernel stack traces with the stack trace trigger enabled for RCU events. The stack trace code calls back into RCU, which calls the stack trace again. The fix expands ftrace recursion protection with a set of bits for contexts (normal, softirq, interrupt, NMI) and uses interrupt context to protect the stack trace.

Risk Assessment

Potential infinite recursion leading to system hang or kernel panic during debugging/tracing, causing denial of service.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the tracing subsystem fix.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Add recursion protection in kernel stack trace recording A bug was reported about an infinite recursion caused by tracing the rcu events with the kernel stack trace trigger enabled. The stack trace code called back into RCU which then called the stack trace again. Expand the ftrace recursion protection to add a set of bits to protect events from recursion. Each bit represents the context that the event is in (normal, softirq, interrupt and NMI). Have the stack trace code use the interrupt context to protect against recursion. Note, the bug showed an issue in both the RCU code as well as the tracing stacktrace code. This only handles the tracing stack trace side of the bug. The RCU fix will be handled separately.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS