Bug 2555022 (CVE-2026-98552)

Summary: CVE-2026-98552 kernel: perf/core: Fix a refcount leak in attach_perf_ctx_data()
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   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Performance Counters for Linux (perf) subsystem. A race condition during the attachment of performance monitoring context data can cause the kernel to fail to update tracking flags, resulting in a reference count leak. A local attacker could exploit this vulnerability to prevent allocated kernel memory from being released, potentially leading to memory exhaustion and a denial of service (DoS).
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 15:39:47 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

perf/core: Fix a refcount leak in attach_perf_ctx_data()

The attach_perf_ctx_data() can race on global and !global cases.  The
global case is protected by global_ctx_data_rwsem and shares a single
reference count using perf_ctx_data.global field.

But when it races with !global case, it may miss to set the global field
and result in a reference count leak.

 CPU1                                  CPU2
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 attach_task_ctx_data(.global=1)       attach_task_ctx_data(.global=0)
   cd1 = alloc_perf_ctx_data();          cd2 = alloc_perf_ctx_data();
                                         //    { .global = 0, .refcount = 1 };

                                         try_cmpxchg(); // success,
                                         // task->perf_ctx_data = cd2
   try_cmpxhg(); // fail; old = cd2
   refcount_inc_not_zero(&old->refcount); // success
     // old.refcount = 2
   free_perf_ctx_data(cd1);

Then later detach_global_ctx_data() will see the data but it's not
marked as global, so it won't call detach_task_ctx_data().