CVE-2026-43416: powerpc, perf: Check that current->mm is alive before getting user callchain

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-05-08 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc, perf: Check that current->mm is alive before getting user callchain It may happen that mm is already released, which leads to kernel panic. This adds the NULL check for current->mm, similarly to commit 20afc60f892d ("x86, perf: Check that current->mm is alive before getting user callchain"). I was getting this panic when running a profiling BPF program (profile.py from bcc-tools): [26215.051935] Kernel attempted to read user page (588) - exploit attempt? (uid: 0) [26215.051950] BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000588 [26215.051952] Faulting instruction address: 0xc00000000020fac0 [26215.051957] Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] [...] [26215.052049] Call Trace: [26215.052050] [c000000061da6d30] [c00000000020fc10] perf_callchain_user_64+0x2d0/0x490 (unreliable) [26215.052054] [c000000061da6dc0] [c00000000020f92c] perf_callchain_user+0x1c/0x30 [26215.052057] [c000000061da6de0] [c0000000005ab2a0] get_perf_callchain+0x100/0x360 [26215.052063] [c000000061da6e70] [c000000000573bc8] bpf_get_stackid+0x88/0xf0 [26215.052067] [c000000061da6ea0] [c008000000042258] bpf_prog_16d4ab9ab662f669_do_perf_event+0xf8/0x274 [...] In addition, move storing the top-level stack entry to generic perf_callchain_user to make sure the top-evel entry is always captured, even if current->mm is NULL. [Maddy: fixed message to avoid checkpatch format style error]

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 2.6.32 before 6.18.19; from 6.19 before 6.19.9; 7.0-rc1, 7.0-rc2, 7.0-rc3 — fixed in 6.18.19, 6.19.9

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.18.19, 6.19.9. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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