GHSA-78fw-h7fp-fffh · Severity: high — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf/core: Fix refcount bug...
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.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-23248 is rated Low Risk (32.5/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-03-18 | — | 0.02% | — |
Full EPSS history (1 record total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.8 | 3.1 | HIGH |
|
1.8 | 5.9 | 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 |
GHSA-78fw-h7fp-fffh · Severity: high — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf/core: Fix refcount bug...
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
unimportant | CVE-2026-23248 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-23248 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-23248 |
suse
|
high | CVE-2026-23248 severity important: SUSE including 4 source package names (kernel-default, kernel-default-base, kernel-default-devel, kernel-source), 4 product×package rows across 1 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 LTSS EXTREME CORE): Known Not Affected 4. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-23248/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2026-23248 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1256 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 871, ignored 173, needed 129, released 83. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-23248 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.14, < 6.18.17 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.19, < 6.19.7 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 7.0 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* |