CVE-2026-97933
Low risk· EPSS 9%Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk9th percentile - higher than 9% of all known CVEs
Summary
A use-after-free vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel tracing subsystem. When opening a tracer options file, a race condition can cause the topts array element to be freed by removal of the trace_array instance before it is used to increment the reference counter. This can lead to use of freed memory.
Risk Assessment
A local attacker or administrator performing tracing instance operations could cause a kernel crash (panic) or potentially exploit the vulnerability for privilege escalation. The risk is especially relevant in environments where trace instance operations are performed concurrently.
Recommendation
Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix that introduces the trace_array_tracer_options_get() helper function to safely take a trace_array reference. If updating is not possible, restrict the ability of unprivileged users to concurrently create and delete tracing instances.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-99259Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the soc/tegra: pmc driver has an uninitialised early_pmc->rate variable for legacy 32-bit Tegra devices. The variable is never configured and remains 0, triggering a warning in tegra_pmc_enter_suspend_mode(). The issue appeared after the PMC driver was changed to create the PMC context dynamically, updating rate only in the new context.
- CVE-2026-99258Unknown
In the Linux kernel, hv_apicid_to_vp_index() uses per-CPU hypercall input and output pages. In an SEV-SNP CoCo VM without a paravisor the output page is not allocated, so the hypervisor stores the resulting VP index into memory not allocated by the guest. The fix uses the input page for both input and output.
- CVE-2026-99257Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the shared GPIO mechanism based on platform lookup tables requires an associated struct device. An fwnode-based lookup with no associated device currently causes a NULL-pointer dereference. The fix adds a check that lets the kernel gracefully handle this situation with an error.
- CVE-2026-99256Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the dm cache module used a rw_semaphore for background_work_lock, although write locks on rw_semaphores have strict owner semantics. The locking process was not always the same as the unlocking one, triggering a warning with CONFIG_DEBUG_RWSEMS during suspend/resume of a cache device. The fix replaces the rw_semaphore with a spinlock and a wait queue.
- CVE-2026-99251Unknown
In the Linux kernel, init_vp_index() contains a retry loop that strips CPUs from a node if they are already in the allocated cpumask or outside the HK_TYPE_MANAGED_IRQ housekeeping cpumask. If the housekeeping cpumask contains no CPU in that node, the loop becomes infinite. The fix skips NUMA nodes with no housekeeping CPU and aborts early when no online housekeeping CPUs exist.
- CVE-2026-99250Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the NBCON console printing kthreads are started very early during boot via early_initcall(). Asynchronously enabling/disabling interrupts during early boot may interfere with early SMP setup on some hardware platforms, causing hangs. The fix postpones kthread startup until after all arch initcalls have completed.
- CVE-2026-99249Unknown
In the Linux kernel, zap_pid_ns_processes() waiting for PID namespace cleanup was not freezable. A tracer outside the namespace that does not reap its traced zombies keeps PIDs allocated, making the wait unbounded and causing every suspend attempt to fail. The fix makes the wait loops use TASK_FREEZABLE states so the freezer can freeze waiting tasks.
- CVE-2026-99248Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the i2c: xiic driver was changed to restore non-managed runtime PM instead of the devres-based approach to fix a clk WARN flood. The managed release tore down runtime PM in the wrong order, causing the clock to be disabled twice and triggering "clkN already disabled" warnings on every teardown.
- CVE-2026-99247Unknown
In the Linux kernel, if trace buffer allocation fails during early boot, tracing_disabled remains set and the global trace array events list stays uninitialized. tracer_init_tracefs_work_func() runs asynchronously without checking this state and calls event_trace_init() and init_tracer_tracefs(), leading to a NULL pointer dereference Oops during boot. The fix checks tracing_disabled at the start of the work function.
- CVE-2026-99215Unknown
In the Linux kernel power supply subsystem, a use-after-free vulnerability exists. If a power supply is unregistered while its external_power_changed() callback is still running, the driver may free data that the callback is still accessing, leading to a kernel crash (NULL pointer dereference).
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Take trace_array reference when opening a tracer options file When a tracer option file is opened, it is passed a descriptor that points to an element on the trace_array's topts array. This element has information to find the trace array and other information. It uses this element to take a reference of the trace_array so that the trace_array does not get removed while this file is opened. Unfortunately, there's a race condition where the element itself could be freed by the removal of the instance the trace_array represents causing a use-after-free as this element that is used to find the trace_array to increment its reference counter is also freed when the instance is removed. To solve this, add a trace_array_tracer_options_get() helper function that will take the address of the element that is passed to the open function by the inode->i_private pointer and search all the trace_arrays under a lock to find the one that the element's address is in the range of the trace_arrays topts array elements. When a match happens, that trace_array's reference would be increased. Note, there's a race where if an admin was deleting and creating trace instances at the same time and the memory of the old trace_array's array matched the memory of the new trace_array that it could in theory open the option from the wrong trace array. But we do not care because it would be stupid to perform that kind of action. As long as the only thing that can happen is that the option from the wrong trace array is used and doesn't crash the kernel it will only make the user confused. But if they are doing something stupid like this, they are already confused, so no harm done.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS