Bug 2541061 (CVE-2026-97918)

Summary: CVE-2026-97918 kernel: tracing: Undo the registration when enabling the histogram trigger fails
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
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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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's tracing subsystem. When enabling a histogram event trigger fails, improper registration cleanup can leave an already freed trigger referenced on an internal tracking list. A local attacker with permission to configure event tracing could exploit this flaw to cause a use-after-free condition, leading to a system crash and Denial of Service (DoS) or potential privilege escalation.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-25 10:45:04 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tracing: Undo the registration when enabling the histogram trigger fails

Commit 6f86bdeab633 ("tracing: Fix bad hist from corrupting named_triggers
list") described how a trigger that is registered but not on file->triggers
ends up freed while still on the global named_triggers list, and moved the
registration down so that hist_trigger_enable() follows it immediately. One
path still gets there. hist_trigger_enable() adds the trigger and takes it
straight back out when the event cannot be enabled:

	list_add_tail_rcu(&data->list, &file->triggers);

	update_cond_flag(file);

	if (trace_event_trigger_enable_disable(file, 1) < 0) {
		list_del_rcu(&data->list);
		update_cond_flag(file);
		ret--;
	}

so the list walk in hist_unregister_trigger() matches nothing, test stays
NULL, and the ->free() that would call del_named_trigger() is skipped.
out_unreg falls through to out_free, which frees the trigger anyway:

 BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in find_named_trigger+0xac/0xc0
 Read of size 8 at addr ffff8880091d3160 by task init/1
  find_named_trigger+0xac/0xc0
  hist_register_trigger+0xc1/0xa00
  event_hist_trigger_parse+0x3146/0x6af0
  event_trigger_write+0xce/0x160
 Freed by task 69:
  kfree+0x154/0x420
  trigger_kthread_fn+0xfd/0x160

Leave the trigger where hist_unregister_trigger() can find it and let that
undo the registration, which is the only code that knows all of what
cmd_ops->init() took: the named list entry, the hist_pad reference, the
reference on the trigger a named histogram is shared with, and the copied
cmd_ops. It also pairs the failed trace_event_trigger_enable_disable(),
whose sm_ref and buffered event reference are otherwise left behind.

Since ->free() releases trigger_data and, for a trigger that does not share
its histogram, hist_data with it, out_unreg can no longer fall through to
out_free. For a trigger that does share, hist_register_trigger() has
already destroyed the caller's hist_data, so the fall-through was reading
freed memory there as well.

Move the enable_timestamps check in hist_unregister_trigger() above the
->free() call for the same reason: hist_data does not outlive it once the
trigger being removed is the one that owns it.