Linux Kernel up to 6.18.9 page_counter_uncharge use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.9. It has been classified as critical. The affected element is the function page_counter_uncharge. This manipulation causes use after free. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-23195. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.9 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function page_counter_uncharge. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup/dmem: avoid pool UAF An UAF issue was observed: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in page_counter_uncharge+0x65/0x150 Write of size 8 at addr ffff888106715440 by task insmod/527 CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 527 Comm: insmod 6.19.0-rc7-next-20260129+ #11 Tainted: [O]=OOT_MODULE Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x82/0xd0 kasan_report+0xca/0x100 kasan_check_range+0x39/0x1c0 page_counter_uncharge+0x65/0x150 dmem_cgroup_uncharge+0x1f/0x260 Allocated by task 527: Freed by task 0: The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff888106715400 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-512 of size 512 The buggy address is located 64 bytes inside of freed 512-byte region [ffff888106715400, ffff888106715600) The buggy address belongs to the physical page: Memory state around the buggy address: ffff888106715300: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc ffff888106715380: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc >ffff888106715400: fa fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ^ ffff888106715480: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff888106715500: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb The issue occurs because a pool can still be held by a caller after its associated memory region is unregistered. The current implementation frees the pool even if users still hold references to it (e.g., before uncharge operations complete). This patch adds a reference counter to each pool, ensuring that a pool is only freed when its reference count drops to zero.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-23195 since 01/13/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 05/05/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 299099 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-23195), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.18.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch d3081353acaa6a638dcf75726066ea556a2de8d5/99a2ef500906138ba58093b9893972a5c303c734 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (299099) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0421). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Discussion