Bug 2541310 (CVE-2026-97921)

Summary: CVE-2026-97921 kernel: tracing: Free histogram the field rejected for a bad modifier
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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's tracing subsystem. When configuring event histogram triggers, specifying an unpermitted modifier for a value or variable fails to release previously allocated memory on error. A local user with tracing access can exploit this flaw by repeatedly submitting invalid triggers, leading to a memory leak and a potential Denial of Service (DoS) due to kernel memory exhaustion.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-25 11:18:07 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tracing: Free histogram the field rejected for a bad modifier

Writing a hist trigger whose value or variable carries a modifier that is
not allowed there leaks the fields that were built for it.

__create_val_field() takes the field from parse_expr() and stores it in
hist_data->fields[] only after the modifier checks have run:

	hist_field = parse_expr(hist_data, file, field_str, flags, var_name,
				&n_subexprs);
	...
	if (hist_field->flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR) {
		if (hist_field->flags & (...))
			goto err;
	} else {
		if (hist_field->flags & (...))
			goto err;
	}

	hist_data->fields[val_idx] = hist_field;

Both checks jump past that store, and the err label returns without
freeing anything. The error unwinds to create_hist_data(), which calls
destroy_hist_data() -> destroy_hist_fields(), and that reaches a field
only by walking fields[]. A field that never got there is unreachable.

commit e0213434fe3e ("tracing: Do not let histogram values have some
modifiers") set ret to -EINVAL and fell through to the store, which left
the field owned by fields[] and freed along with the rest of hist_data.
Splitting the check into a value case and a variable case replaced that
fall-through with a goto that skips it.

With CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK, 200 writes of

  # echo 'hist:keys=prev_pid:vals=next_pid.log2' > \
	 events/sched/sched_switch/trigger

each correctly rejected with -EINVAL, leave 332 unreferenced objects
(63744 bytes) reported at create_hist_field(); 200 install and remove
cycles of a valid trigger leave none. A '.log2' field is two
allocations, since create_hist_field() puts the plain field in
operands[0] of the log2 field, and both are reported.

Use destroy_hist_field() rather than __destroy_hist_field() so that
operands[0] is freed as well. It returns early for HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF,
which is what an operand owned by hist_data->var_refs[] needs; the
rejected field itself is never a var ref, because a var ref never carries
a modifier flag.