Linux Kernel Tracing use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as very critical has been discovered in Linux Kernel. The affected element is the function event_hist_trigger_free/event_hist_trigger_named_free/event_enable_trigger_free of the component Tracing. Such manipulation leads to use after free. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2026-68283. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, has been found in Linux Kernel (affected version unknown). Affected by this issue is the function event_hist_trigger_free/event_hist_trigger_named_free/event_enable_trigger_free of the component Tracing. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Fix use-after-free freeing trigger private data Commit 61d445af0a7c ("tracing: Add bulk garbage collection of freeing event_trigger_data") moved the kfree() of event_trigger_data to a kthread that runs tracepoint_synchronize_unregister() before freeing. That removed the synchronization the trigger .free callbacks used to get implicitly and inline from trigger_data_free(). event_hist_trigger_free(), event_hist_trigger_named_free() and event_enable_trigger_free() free their satellite data (hist_data, cmd_ops, enable_data) right after trigger_data_free() returns. With the synchronization now deferred to the kthread, a concurrent tracepoint handler can still reach that data through the list_del_rcu()'d trigger, causing a use-after-free. The histogram teardown must stay synchronous: remove_hist_vars() and unregister_field_var_hists() have to detach a synthetic event from the histogram before the trigger-removal write returns, otherwise a following command races in and the synthetic-event removal fails with -EBUSY, as the trigger-synthetic-eprobe.tc selftest catches. Make those callbacks wait with the correct barrier - tracepoint_synchronize_unregister(), matching the free kthread - before freeing. The enable trigger has no such synchronous requirement, and a blocking synchronize there would re-serialize the path that commit deliberately deferred. Give it an optional private_data_free() callback that the free kthread runs after its grace period, and free enable_data from there.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-68283 since 07/30/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $5k-$25k (estimation calculated on 08/10/2026).

Applying the patch b9c8a1400a3bf633f32820d184f3e05fed0f4af7 is able to eliminate this problem.

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

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

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Discussion