Bug 2532518 (CVE-2026-89749)

Summary: CVE-2026-89749 kernel: tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedCC: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, 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. Specifically, within the tracing subsystem, the `event_test_stuff()` function can pass an invalid error pointer to `kthread_stop()` if `kthread_run()` fails to create a kernel thread. This improper handling of error pointers, particularly under memory pressure, leads to `kthread_stop()` attempting to dereference an invalid memory address. The consequence of this vulnerability is a kernel crash, resulting in a denial of service for the affected system.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-11 23:37:26 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()

event_test_stuff() calls kthread_run() and unconditionally passes the
returned task_struct pointer to kthread_stop(). kthread_run() returns an
error pointer such as ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM) when kthread creation fails, for
example under memory pressure during the boot-time event self-test.
kthread_stop() then dereferences the invalid pointer, crashing the kernel.

Check the result of kthread_run() before passing it to kthread_stop(). Use
WARN_ON() so that a failure to create the self-test thread does not go
unnoticed, matching the ring-buffer self-test fix in commit
91542863abad ("ring-buffer: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()").