Answer in brief
CVE-2026-23248 records a High severity (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in perf/core: Fix refcount bug and potential UAF in perf_mmap. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 7.8. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf <c27dea9f50ed525facb62ef647dddc4722456e07 || >=b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf <ac7ecb65af170a7fc193e7bd8be15dac84ec6a56 || >=b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf <77de62ad3de3967818c3dbe656b7336ebee461d2 | c27dea9f50ed525facb62ef647dddc4722456e07, ac7ecb65af170a7fc193e7bd8be15dac84ec6a56, 77de62ad3de3967818c3dbe656b7336ebee461d2 |
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | 6.14 | Not reported |
Published upstream
Mar 18, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Oct 16, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Oct 16, 2026
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.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.