Vulnerability Details CVE-2026-23012
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/damon/core: remove call_control in inactive contexts
If damon_call() is executed against a DAMON context that is not running,
the function returns error while keeping the damon_call_control object
linked to the context's call_controls list. Let's suppose the object is
deallocated after the damon_call(), and yet another damon_call() is
executed against the same context. The function tries to add the new
damon_call_control object to the call_controls list, which still has the
pointer to the previous damon_call_control object, which is deallocated.
As a result, use-after-free happens.
This can actually be triggered using the DAMON sysfs interface. It is not
easily exploitable since it requires the sysfs write permission and making
a definitely weird file writes, though. Please refer to the report for
more details about the issue reproduction steps.
Fix the issue by making two changes. Firstly, move the final
kdamond_call() for cancelling all existing damon_call() requests from
terminating DAMON context to be done before the ctx->kdamond reset. This
makes any code that sees NULL ctx->kdamond can safely assume the context
may not access damon_call() requests anymore. Secondly, let damon_call()
to cleanup the damon_call_control objects that were added to the
already-terminated DAMON context, before returning the error.
Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score
EPSS Score 0.0
EPSS Ranking 7.1%
CVSS Severity
CVSS v3 Score 7.8
Products affected by CVE-2026-23012
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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:6.18.2
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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:6.19