Bug 2516548 (CVE-2026-72110)

Summary: CVE-2026-72110 kernel: bpf,fork: wipe ->bpf_storage before bailouts that access it
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's BPF/fork component. A local user, by initiating a `fork()` operation from a process within a task storage map, can trigger a condition where the `bpf_storage` is not properly initialized. This can lead to a Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability, which occurs when the system attempts to use memory after it has been freed. Exploitation of this flaw could result in kernel hangs or other system instability, effectively causing a denial of service.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:18:19 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bpf,fork: wipe ->bpf_storage before bailouts that access it

Currently, copy_process() can bail out to free_task() before p->bpf_storage
has been initialized, with this call graph (shown here for the
!CONFIG_MEMCG case):

copy_process
  dup_task_struct
    arch_dup_task_struct
      [copies the entire task_struct, including ->bpf_storage member]
  [RLIMIT_NPROC check fails]
  delayed_free_task
    free_task
      bpf_task_storage_free
        rcu_dereference(task->bpf_storage)
        bpf_local_storage_destroy

In this case, the nascent task's ->bpf_storage member that
bpf_local_storage_destroy() operates on is a plain copy of the parent's
->bpf_storage pointer, not a real initialized pointer.
This leads to badness (kernel hangs, UAF).

This is reachable as long as the process calling fork() has been inserted
into a task storage map.