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CVE-2026-23012: mm/damon/core: remove call_control in inactive contexts
- Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: none known
- Published: 2026-01-25 · updated 2026-06-17
- Weakness: CWE-416
Description
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.
Affected products
- Linux kernel: from 6.17.1 before 6.18.7; 6.17, 6.19-rc1, 6.19-rc2, 6.19-rc3, 6.19-rc4, 6.19-rc5 (+3) — fixed in 6.18.7
How to fix
Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.18.7. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/23b061f421eef03647b512f3df48861706c87db3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f9132fbc2e83baf2c45a77043672a63a675c9394
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