CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-97922

Unknown
Published: Translated: NVD NIST

Summary

In the Linux kernel tracing subsystem there is a memory leak. When the same variable is used three or more times in one hist trigger, removing the trigger leaks the variable reference and its strings. The reference count is only incremented and freeing occurs at 0 or 1, so three or more references leak.

Risk Assessment

Long-running systems with such triggers may experience gradual kernel memory exhaustion and system instability. The issue mainly affects environments using advanced tracing mechanisms.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix that drops the count and frees unconditionally. Until then, avoid creating hist triggers that use the same variable three or more times.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Free histogram var refs regardless of how often they are referenced Using the same variable three or more times in one hist trigger leaks the variable reference and its strings when the trigger is removed. commit 656fe2ba85e8 ("tracing: Use hist trigger's var_ref array to destroy var_refs") made a trigger's var_refs[] array the only owner of a var ref: destroy_hist_field() returns early for HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF, so the field expressions never destroy one. One entry, freed once, no count needed. commit 8bcebc77e85f ("tracing: Fix histogram code when expression has same var as value") then made repeated references share one object and added a count of them. Only the increment side exists, since those expressions still return early and never drop a reference, so __destroy_hist_field() sees how many references were created rather than how many are left. It frees when the decremented count is 0 or 1, so two references work and three or more leak. Sharing kept one array entry per object, and create_var_ref() searches and appends within a single trigger, so nothing outside it holds the object. Removing a trigger whose variables are still referenced is already refused by check_var_refs() with -EBUSY. Drop the count and free unconditionally.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS