Linux Kernel up to 6.18.39/7.1.4 Perf Sched register_pid heap-based overflow

CVSS Meta Temp Score
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CTI Interest Score
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7.4$0-$5k0.00-

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.39/7.1.4. Affected by this issue is the function register_pid of the component Perf Sched. The manipulation leads to heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-80671. Local access is required to approach this attack. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.39/7.1.4 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function register_pid of the component Perf Sched. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf sched: Fix register_pid() overflow, strcpy, and BUG_ON register_pid() has several issues when processing untrusted perf.data: 1. Integer overflow: (pid + 1) * sizeof(struct task_desc *) can wrap to a small value on 32-bit systems when pid is large (e.g. 0x40000000), causing realloc to return a tiny buffer followed by out-of-bounds writes in the initialization loop. 2. Heap buffer overflow: strcpy(task->comm, comm) copies the untrusted comm string into a fixed 20-byte COMM_LEN buffer with no length check. 3. BUG_ON on allocation failure: perf.data is untrusted input, so allocation failures should be handled gracefully rather than killing the process. 4. Realloc of sched->tasks assigned directly back, leaking the old pointer on failure; nr_tasks incremented before the realloc, leaving corrupted state on failure. Cap pid at PID_MAX_LIMIT (4194304, matching the kernel's maximum on 64-bit), replace strcpy with strlcpy, guard against NULL comm, replace BUG_ON with NULL returns using safe realloc patterns, and add NULL checks in callers that dereference the result.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-80671 since 08/26/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. Additional levels of successful authentication are required for exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/28/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.18.40 or 7.1.5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 652cea73b7b7b7c622a2be670e44e3c499c6d49f/5ea1dcc9418c4e06ce29ed5170596f497ba86872/5949d339f5ec98752d56dcd4e36f619a59d513a5 is able to eliminate this problem.

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Productinfo

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CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 7.7
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 7.4

VulDB Base Score: 7.7
VulDB Temp Score: 7.4
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AVACAuCIA
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VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
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VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Heap-based overflow
CWE: CWE-122 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

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Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.18.40/7.1.5
Patch: 652cea73b7b7b7c622a2be670e44e3c499c6d49f/5ea1dcc9418c4e06ce29ed5170596f497ba86872/5949d339f5ec98752d56dcd4e36f619a59d513a5

Timelineinfo

08/26/2026 CVE reserved
08/28/2026 +2 days Advisory disclosed
08/28/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
08/28/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-80671 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-80671
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-396617

Entryinfo

Created: 08/28/2026 10:51
Changes: 08/28/2026 10:51 (59)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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