Vulnerability Details CVE-2026-23248
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.
Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score
EPSS Score 0.001
EPSS Ranking 2.1%
CVSS Severity
CVSS v3 Score 7.8
Products affected by CVE-2026-23248
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.1
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.10
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.11
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.2
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.3
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.4
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.5
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.6
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.7
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.8
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14.9
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.1
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.10
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.11
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.2
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.3
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.4
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.5
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.6
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.7
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.8
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15.9
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.1
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.10
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.11
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.12
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.2
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.3
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.4
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.5
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.6
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.7
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.8
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16.9
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.1
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.10
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.11
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.12
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.13
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.2
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.3
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.4
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.5
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.6
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.7
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.8
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.9
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.1
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.10
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.11
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.13
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.14
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.16
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.2
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.3
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.4
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.5
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.6
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.7
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.8
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.9
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.1
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.3
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.4
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.6
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0