CVE-2026-74637

perf/core: Fix group leader use-after-free after sibling detach

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: August 22, 2026 at 03:32 PM UTC
Updated: October 16, 2026 at 08:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.1%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf/core: Fix group leader use-after-free after sibling detach perf_group_detach() handles leader and sibling detach differently. When the group leader is detached, all siblings are promoted to singleton events and their group_leader pointer is reset to themselves. When a sibling is detached, it is removed from the leader's sibling_list, but its group_leader pointer is left pointing at the old leader. That is harmless when the sibling is being closed and freed immediately, as in the DETACH_DEAD path. It is not safe when the sibling is detached but kept alive, such as during CPU hotplug with DETACH_GROUP. In that case the sibling is removed from the context, while its file descriptor can still keep it alive. A typical failing sequence is: - A group contains leader L and sibling S. - CPU hot-unplug detaches S with DETACH_GROUP, removing it from L->sibling_list but leaving S->group_leader == L. - L is later closed and freed. - A PERF_IOC_FLAG_GROUP ioctl on S follows S->group_leader and dereferences the freed leader. This was reproduced by running the perf event fuzzer, CPU hotplug, and a stress workload concurrently: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 006b6b6b6b6b6cdb CPU: 2 PID: 12489 Comm: perf_fuzzer 6.18.7 PREEMPT pc : perf_ioctl+0x34c/0xc68 x20: ffffff89a3fa2c70 x8 : 6b6b6b6b6b6b6b6b Code: 943c4a0e 340047a0 f9404a94 f9411e88 (f940b908) Call trace: perf_ioctl+0x34c/0xc68 (P) __arm64_sys_ioctl+0xa0/0xf4 invoke_syscall+0x58/0xe4 el0_svc_common+0xa8/0xdc do_el0_svc+0x1c/0x28 el0_svc+0x40/0xc0 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x68/0xdc el0t_64_sync+0x1c4/0x1c8 The fault happened in perf_ioctl(), where perf_event_for_each() follows the stale group_leader pointer and perf_event_for_each_child() then dereferences the freed leader's context. Fix the use-after-free by promoting the detached sibling to a singleton. Also fix __event_disable() cgroup accounting and event state change.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

2.6.34.142.6.358a49542c0554af7d0073aac0ee73ee65b807ef34e732ebc42aea321ee84514330eb3a675307fcc83
Vendor states this is fixed in 1e7abfeb23c12bf46f6457e4a3e1a1a300d50619 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 42c5ca1f0a288a52878bd72a5595b08261057438 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 80c6054a4c40a0ffad82acef9f9a0dee108d152a (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 8e92e03984364d93e0d5b0acd81c95eca773f034 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 8f867c0e8da4c2303d91adf45acb6b1820966c27 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in a979a642402d0b1f856c7a729b4cb2d92de4cf2f (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in b42948f9e0d1ea4dbd5742ce1dfc7688de5d4a35 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in f8a07021679aadfb6d63b209207ccc41f26982d1 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 2.6.35 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.267 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.218 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.185 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.105 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.18.45 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.154 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.1.9 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.2 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusRECEIVED

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