Use-after-free in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-72071

Vulnerability details

The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to a use-after-free in user_event_mm_dup() and the user_events enabler handling in kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c when walking the parent mm enabler list during fork() while an enabler is concurrently unregistered. A local user can register an enabler and then concurrently unregister it and call fork() to cause a denial of service.

Exploitation requires access to open user_events_data and a race between concurrent operations in a multithreaded process.

Affected software

How to mitigate CVE-2026-72071

External References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/05b24f68f78ff3a1ef7f015f7327b35886b741f6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/25acb6711da6fa0382744fa92bd6d42a22c1ae68
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/50fd6dd755c6e48a38af2fa4621167eea56829c2
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/95400e7039cdfeb0b53652d521d766f1698cae95
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b33ac2d39953efb12f598c0dae242c5f644ea669

Related Security Bulletins

• Use-after-free in Linux kernel trace
• Ubuntu update for linux-nvidia-tegra