CVE-2026-52973: futex: Drop CLONE_THREAD requirement for private default hash alloc

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: 2026-06-24 · updated 2026-10-19
Weakness: CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: futex: Drop CLONE_THREAD requirement for private default hash alloc Currently need_futex_hash_allocate_default() depends on strict pthread semantics, abusing CLONE_THREAD. This breaks the non-concurrency assumptions when doing the mm->futex_ref pcpu allocations, leading to bugs[0] when sharing the mm in other ways; ie: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in futex_hash_put ... where the +1 bias can end up on a percpu counter that mm->futex_ref no longer points at. Loosen the check to cover any CLONE_VM clone, except vfork(). Excluding vfork keeps the existing paths untouched (no overhead), and we can't race in the first place: either the parent is suspended and the child runs alone, or mm->futex_ref is already allocated from an earlier CLONE_VM.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.17.1 before 6.18.33; from 6.19 before 7.0.10; 6.17, 6.17-rc5, 6.17-rc6, 6.17-rc7, 7.1-rc1 — fixed in 6.18.33, 7.0.10

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.18.33, 7.0.10. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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