Linux Kernel up to 6.12.110/6.18.52/7.2.6/7.3-rc2 tracing print_entries n_entries out-of-bounds

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
8.6	$0-$5k	0.00+

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as very critical has been discovered in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.110/6.18.52/7.2.6/7.3-rc2. This vulnerability affects the function print_entries of the component tracing. Such manipulation of the argument n_entries leads to out-of-bounds. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2026-97920. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.110/6.18.52/7.2.6/7.3-rc2. It has been rated as very critical. Affected by this issue is the function print_entries of the component tracing. The manipulation of the argument n_entries with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Keep the entry count when the histogram stats allocation fails print_entries() uses n_entries both as the number of sort entries and as its own return value, so the -ENOMEM it stores when the stats allocation fails overwrites the count that the cleanup still needs: n_entries = tracing_map_sort_entries(map, ...); if (n_entries < 0) return n_entries; ... if (!stats) { n_entries = -ENOMEM; goto out; } ... out: tracing_map_destroy_sort_entries(sort_entries, n_entries); tracing_map_destroy_sort_entries() takes an unsigned int and loops up to it, so -ENOMEM arrives as 4294967284. It walks an array of at most map->max_elts pointers and calls destroy_sort_entry(), which dereferences and frees, on whatever lies past the end. Reading the hist file of a trigger with a .percent value, with that allocation forced to fail: BUG: KASAN: vmalloc-out-of-bounds in tracing_map_destroy_sort_entries+0xa0/0xb0 Read of size 8 at addr ffffc90000045000 by task init/1 tracing_map_destroy_sort_entries+0xa0/0xb0 hist_show+0x6f7/0x1df0 seq_read_iter+0x2b8/0x1190 vfs_read+0x176/0xa40 The buggy address belongs to a 4-page vmalloc region starting at ffffc90000041000 allocated at tracing_map_sort_entries+0x5c/0xd50 A few pages further the fault is fatal. The registers at the oops confirm the bound: the loop's end pointer less the array start, over the pointer size, is 4294967284. Return the error in a separate variable and leave n_entries holding the count, the way tracing_map_sort_entries() does on its own error path. The stats block is only entered for a value carrying .percent or .graph, which __create_val_field() has rejected since v6.3, so this cannot be reached in mainline as it stands. It becomes reachable again with "tracing: hist: let values keep the percent and graph modifiers", so it should be applied first.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-97920 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/25/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.12.111, 6.18.53, 7.2.7 or 7.3-rc3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 9bd8321f5370295d1ae96dd17d43be3c9edd441b/c80b2a8067d58ff7d268ceef781c68b37a16c321/17e87ce55f877efff1b08fe509e8bf91378cbbc9/06f5634ec5584954177f9a22e36b3bfb398a971b is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.110
• 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
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 6.18.50
• 6.18.51
• 6.18.52
• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5
• 7.2.6
• 7.3-rc1
• 7.3-rc2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 9.0
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 8.6

VulDB Base Score: 9.0
VulDB Temp Score: 8.6
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

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

Exploitinginfo

Class: Out-of-bounds
CWE: CWE-125 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.12.111/6.18.53/7.2.7/7.3-rc3
Patch: 9bd8321f5370295d1ae96dd17d43be3c9edd441b/c80b2a8067d58ff7d268ceef781c68b37a16c321/17e87ce55f877efff1b08fe509e8bf91378cbbc9/06f5634ec5584954177f9a22e36b3bfb398a971b

Timelineinfo

09/25/2026 Advisory disclosed
09/25/2026 +0 days CVE reserved
09/25/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
09/25/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-97920 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-97920
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-410138

Entryinfo

Created: 09/25/2026 15:00
Changes: 09/25/2026 15:00 (60)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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Discussion

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