Bug 2516699 (CVE-2026-72112)

Summary: CVE-2026-72112 kernel: io_uring/bpf-ops: reject re-registration of an already-bound ops
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
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's `io_uring/bpf-ops` component. This vulnerability allows a local attacker with specific capabilities (`CAP_BPF` and `CAP_PERFMON`) to re-register an already-bound operation, leading to a use-after-free of freed executable memory. This could result in arbitrary code execution.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:26:29 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

io_uring/bpf-ops: reject re-registration of an already-bound ops

io_install_bpf() only rejects a second registration on the ctx side
(ctx->bpf_ops) and sets the per-map back-pointer ops->priv
unconditionally. The struct_ops link path never advances a map past
BPF_STRUCT_OPS_STATE_READY, so the same io_uring_bpf_ops map can be
registered more than once, and bpf_io_reg() re-resolves the target ring
via fget(ops->ring_fd) on every call. A caller can therefore point the
same ring_fd at a different io_ring_ctx between two BPF_LINK_CREATE
calls.

The second registration passes the ctx->bpf_ops check (the new ctx has
none) and overwrites ops->priv, orphaning the first ctx. Teardown
(io_eject_bpf()/bpf_io_unreg()) only reaches a ctx through ops->priv, so
the orphaned ctx is never torn down: its ctx->loop_step keeps pointing
into the struct_ops trampoline, which is freed once the map is gone. A
later io_uring_enter() on the orphaned ring then calls the dangling
ctx->loop_step from io_run_loop() -- a use-after-free of freed
executable memory, reachable by a task with CAP_BPF + CAP_PERFMON.

Reject registration when ops->priv is already set, as hid_bpf_reg()
does for its struct_ops.