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.
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux Ami 2 | — | Upgrade kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64Upgrade kernel-debuginfoUpgrade perfUpgrade kernel-livepatch-5.15.220-153.252Upgrade python-perf-debuginfoUpgrade perf-debuginfoUpgrade kernel-toolsUpgrade python-perfUpgrade kernel-tools-debuginfoUpgrade bpftool-debuginfoUpgrade kernel-headersUpgrade kernel-livepatch-5.10.268-266.1092Upgrade bpftoolUpgrade kernel-develUpgrade kernelUpgrade kernel-tools-develUpgrade kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 | Oct 19, 2026 | Oct 19, 2026 |
| Amazon_linux_2023 | — | Upgrade python3-perf6.18Upgrade kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-aarch64Upgrade microvm-kernel6.18Upgrade kernel6.18-modules-extra-commonUpgrade kernel6.18-modules-extraUpgrade kernel6.18-toolsUpgrade bpftool6.18Upgrade kernel6.18-tools-debuginfoUpgrade perf6.18-debuginfoUpgrade python3-perf6.18-debuginfoUpgrade kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-x86_64Upgrade kernel6.18Upgrade kernel6.18-headersUpgrade perf6.18Upgrade kernel6.18-debuginfoUpgrade bpftool6.18-debuginfoUpgrade kernel6.18-tools-develUpgrade kernel-livepatch-6.18.48-107.148Upgrade kernel6.18-devel | Sep 30, 2026 | Aug 22, 2026 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade linuxUpgrade linux-6.12 | Aug 26, 2026 | Aug 26, 2026 |
| Redhat_linux | — | No solution exists | Aug 26, 2026 | Aug 22, 2026 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade linux-image-nvidia-tegra-rt-6.8Upgrade linux-image-6.8.0-1036-nvidia-tegra-rtUpgrade linux-image-6.8.0-1036-nvidia-tegraUpgrade linux-image-nvidia-tegra-6.8Upgrade linux-image-nvidia-tegraUpgrade linux-image-nvidia-tegra-rt | Oct 7, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
| Vmware Photon_os | — | Use 'tdnf update' to upgrade all packages to the latest version. | Sep 15, 2026 | Aug 22, 2026 |
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