CVE-2026-99140
Received
Received - Intake
Time Stamp Handling Issue in Linux Kernel Tracing
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-99140, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-10-28
Last updated on: 2026-10-28
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tracing: Fix hist trigger timestamps for buffered events
Syzkaller triggered a WARN_ON_ONCE(!nest) warning:
WARNING: kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c:821 at ring_buffer_event_time_stamp
Call trace:
ring_buffer_event_time_stamp
hist_field_timestamp
hist_fn_call
event_hist_trigger
event_triggers_call
__event_trigger_test_discard
trace_event_buffer_commit
do_trace_event_raw_event_sched_switch
trace_event_raw_event_sched_switch
The warning is probabilistically reproducible and is related to syzkaller
executing the following commands:
echo 'prev_pid == 999999' > events/sched/sched_switch/filter
echo 'hist:keys=common_timestamp' > events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
The specific triggering process is as follows:
CPU 0 CPU 1
(context switching) (echo 'hist:keys=common_timestamp' > \
events/sched/sched_switch/trigger)
do_trace_event_raw_event_##call
trace_event_buffer_lock_reserve
if (!tr->no_filter_buffering_ref &&
trace_file->flags & EVENT_FILE_FL_FILTERED)
return entry; // return directly
event_hist_trigger_parse
hist_register_trigger
tracing_set_filter_buffering(file->tr, true);
tr->no_filter_buffering_ref++;
__trace_buffer_lock_reserve
rb_start_commit
local_inc(&cpu_buffer->committing); // skipped and not executed
trace_event_buffer_commit
__event_trigger_test_discard
event_triggers_call
event_hist_trigger
hist_fn_call
hist_field_timestamp
ring_buffer_event_time_stamp
nest = local_read(&cpu_buffer->committing);
WARN_ON_ONCE(!nest) // trigger warning
The root cause is that when an event file has a filter attached and the
hist trigger has not yet been attached, trace_event_buffer_lock_reserve()
writes the event into the per-CPU trace_buffered_event temp buffer instead
of reserving it in the ring buffer, so cpu_buffer->committing is not
incremented. When the event is later processed at commit time by a hist
trigger, hist_field_timestamp() -> ring_buffer_event_time_stamp() sees a
zero committing count, triggering WARN_ON_ONCE(!nest).
tracing_event_time_stamp() was added by commit d8279bfc5e959 ("tracing:
Add tracing_event_time_stamp() API") for exactly this case: if the event
is the per-CPU trace_buffered_event, it returns the current ring buffer
timestamp. But it never gained a caller. Use it in hist_field_timestamp(),
so that a hist trigger that races onto a buffered event records the
current time, which is only marginally later than when the event was
recorded, instead of warning and recording a bogus timestamp.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |