CVE-2026-23088

Published Feb 4, 2026

Last updated 7 months ago

Overview

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Fix crash on synthetic stacktrace field usage When creating a synthetic event based on an existing synthetic event that had a stacktrace field and the new synthetic event used that field a kernel crash occurred: ~# cd /sys/kernel/tracing ~# echo 's:stack unsigned long stack[];' > dynamic_events ~# echo 'hist:keys=prev_pid:s0=common_stacktrace if prev_state & 3' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger ~# echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:s1=$s0:onmatch(sched.sched_switch).trace(stack,$s1)' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger The above creates a synthetic event that takes a stacktrace when a task schedules out in a non-running state and passes that stacktrace to the sched_switch event when that task schedules back in. It triggers the "stack" synthetic event that has a stacktrace as its field (called "stack"). ~# echo 's:syscall_stack s64 id; unsigned long stack[];' >> dynamic_events ~# echo 'hist:keys=common_pid:s2=stack' >> events/synthetic/stack/trigger ~# echo 'hist:keys=common_pid:s3=$s2,i0=id:onmatch(synthetic.stack).trace(syscall_stack,$i0,$s3)' >> events/raw_syscalls/sys_exit/trigger The above makes another synthetic event called "syscall_stack" that attaches the first synthetic event (stack) to the sys_exit trace event and records the stacktrace from the stack event with the id of the system call that is exiting. When enabling this event (or using it in a historgram): ~# echo 1 > events/synthetic/syscall_stack/enable Produces a kernel crash! BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000000400010 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI CPU: 6 UID: 0 PID: 1257 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.16.3+deb14-amd64 #1 PREEMPT(lazy) Debian 6.16.3-1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.17.0-debian-1.17.0-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:trace_event_raw_event_synth+0x90/0x380 Code: c5 00 00 00 00 85 d2 0f 84 e1 00 00 00 31 db eb 34 0f 1f 00 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 <49> 8b 04 24 48 83 c3 01 8d 0c c5 08 00 00 00 01 cd 41 3b 5d 40 0f RSP: 0018:ffffd2670388f958 EFLAGS: 00010202 RAX: ffff8ba1065cc100 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: fffff266ffda7b90 RDI: ffffd2670388f9b0 RBP: 0000000000000010 R08: ffff8ba104e76000 R09: ffffd2670388fa50 R10: ffff8ba102dd42e0 R11: ffffffff9a908970 R12: 0000000000400010 R13: ffff8ba10a246400 R14: ffff8ba10a710220 R15: fffff266ffda7b90 FS: 00007fa3bc63f740(0000) GS:ffff8ba2e0f48000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000400010 CR3: 0000000107f9e003 CR4: 0000000000172ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? __tracing_map_insert+0x208/0x3a0 action_trace+0x67/0x70 event_hist_trigger+0x633/0x6d0 event_triggers_call+0x82/0x130 trace_event_buffer_commit+0x19d/0x250 trace_event_raw_event_sys_exit+0x62/0xb0 syscall_exit_work+0x9d/0x140 do_syscall_64+0x20a/0x2f0 ? trace_event_raw_event_sched_switch+0x12b/0x170 ? save_fpregs_to_fpstate+0x3e/0x90 ? _raw_spin_unlock+0xe/0x30 ? finish_task_switch.isra.0+0x97/0x2c0 ? __rseq_handle_notify_resume+0xad/0x4c0 ? __schedule+0x4b8/0xd00 ? restore_fpregs_from_fpstate+0x3c/0x90 ? switch_fpu_return+0x5b/0xe0 ? do_syscall_64+0x1ef/0x2f0 ? do_fault+0x2e9/0x540 ? __handle_mm_fault+0x7d1/0xf70 ? count_memcg_events+0x167/0x1d0 ? handle_mm_fault+0x1d7/0x2e0 ? do_user_addr_fault+0x2c3/0x7f0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e The reason is that the stacktrace field is not labeled as such, and is treated as a normal field and not as a dynamic event that it is. In trace_event_raw_event_synth() the event is field is still treated as a dynamic array, but the retrieval of the data is considered a normal field, and the reference is just the meta data: // Meta data is retrieved instead of a dynamic array ---truncated---
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD status
Analyzed
Products
linux_kernel

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
5.5
Impact score
3.6
Exploitability score
1.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Severity
MEDIUM

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-476

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Configurations

  1. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup: Avoid iteration of dying tasks with zero refcount The commit 260fbcb92bbea ("cgroup: Move dying_tasks cleanup from cgroup_task_release() to cgroup_task_free()") extended the lifetime of tasks on the dying_tasks list. The iterators have provision to go through dying_tasks because of dying threadgroup leaders or explicit CSS_TASK_ITER_WITH_DEAD, however, it was expected that such tasks can obtain a new reference (that is possible before cgroup_task_release()/put_task_struct_rcu_user()). The tasks after cgroup_task_release() and before cgroup_task_free() are subject to race when they may or may not have ->usage count > 0. The race window is between css_task_iter_next() invocations when css_set_lock is released and we may arrive at a new ->task_pos. The iterator should not attempt to resurrect tasks whose ->usage count dropped to zero. (When that happens, __put_task_struct_rcu_cb() is already imminent and the returned task_struct would could be used after free.) As for the fix, we cannot simply check the signal->live count of a task on the dying list because that won't distinguish regular zombies waiting to be reaped from RCU remnant tasks that are going to be free'd. Therefore add an extra check to rule out ->usage==0 tasks from any iteration. The repeat: loop in css_task_iter_advance() doesn't consider ->usage count, so add a new loop to css_task_iter_next() to skip de-used tasks on the dying_list. Rough illustration of the possible race R (reader of cgroup.procs) T (thread) L (group leader) --------------------------------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- L exits, signal->live > 0 cgroup_task_dead(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // skips only cset->tasks list_add_tail(&L->cg_list, &cset->dying_tasks) css_task_iter_next() take css_set_lock css_task_iter_advance() leader && signal->live != 0 => it->task_pos = &L->cg_list release css_set_lock T exits --signal->live == 0 cgroup_task_dead(T) // css_set_lock release_task(T) cgroup_task_release(T) release_task(L) // zap_leader cgroup_task_release(L) put_task_struct_rcu_user(L) ...RCU... put_task_struct(L) L->usage = 0 /* L still on dying_tasks */ ...RCU... __put_task_struct(L) css_task_iter_next() // another iteration take css_set_lock it->task_pos = &L->cg_list get_task_struct(L) => addition on 0 drop css_set_lock cgroup_task_free(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // dying skip comes too late free_task(L) cgroup_procs_show() task_pid_vnr(L)•CVE-2026-98163