Bug 2448596 (CVE-2026-23248) - CVE-2026-23248 kernel: perf/core: Fix refcount bug and potential UAF in perf_mmap
Summary: CVE-2026-23248 kernel: perf/core: Fix refcount bug and potential UAF in perf_...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-23248
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
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Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-03-18 11:02 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-03-19 02:47 UTC (History)
0 users

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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-03-18 11:02:29 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

perf/core: Fix refcount bug and potential UAF in perf_mmap

Syzkaller reported a refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free warning
in perf_mmap.

The issue is caused by a race condition between a failing mmap() setup
and a concurrent mmap() on a dependent event (e.g., using output
redirection).

In perf_mmap(), the ring_buffer (rb) is allocated and assigned to
event->rb with the mmap_mutex held. The mutex is then released to
perform map_range().

If map_range() fails, perf_mmap_close() is called to clean up.
However, since the mutex was dropped, another thread attaching to
this event (via inherited events or output redirection) can acquire
the mutex, observe the valid event->rb pointer, and attempt to
increment its reference count. If the cleanup path has already
dropped the reference count to zero, this results in a
use-after-free or refcount saturation warning.

Fix this by extending the scope of mmap_mutex to cover the
map_range() call. This ensures that the ring buffer initialization
and mapping (or cleanup on failure) happens atomically effectively,
preventing other threads from accessing a half-initialized or
dying ring buffer.


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