CVE-2026-74440
Received Received - Intake

drm/xe Kernel Fence Race Condition in Exec IOCTL

Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-74440, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.

Publication date: 2026-08-15

Last updated on: 2026-08-15

Assigner: kernel.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/xe: Wait on external BO kernel fences in exec IOCTL Before arming a user job, xe_exec_ioctl() only added the VM's dma-resv KERNEL slot as a dependency. That slot covers rebinds and the kernel operations of the VM's private BOs, but not external BOs (bo->vm == NULL), which carry their kernel operations (evictions, moves, ...) in their own dma-resv KERNEL slot. The DMA_RESV_USAGE_KERNEL slot is the cross-driver contract for memory management operations that must complete before the BO or its backing store may be used: any accessor is required to wait on the KERNEL fences before touching the resv. By skipping the external BOs' KERNEL slots, the exec path violated that contract and could schedule a user job while a kernel operation on an external BO mapped by the VM was still in flight, racing against it and potentially reading or writing memory that was being moved. Replace the VM-only dependency with an iteration over every object locked by the exec, adding each object's KERNEL slot as a job dependency. This covers the VM resv (rebinds and private BOs) as well as every external BO, mirroring the drm_gpuvm_resv_add_fence() call that later publishes the job fence to the same set of objects. Long-running mode continues to skip this, as before. (cherry picked from commit a6b842acf3ddd1efc53a56de9260cfa718fb35e7)

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Meta Information

Published
2026-08-15
Last Modified
2026-08-15
Generated
2026-08-15
AI Q&A
2026-08-15
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
EUVD

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel *

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability in the Linux kernel involves improper handling of external buffer objects (BOs) in the drm/xe driver. The exec IOCTL function only waited for the VM's dma-resv KERNEL slot before arming a user job, but external BOs have their own KERNEL slots for memory management operations. This could lead to a race condition where a user job accesses memory while a kernel operation on an external BO is still in progress.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability is specific to the Linux kernel's DRM/XE driver and relates to improper handling of external BOs in the exec IOCTL. Detection requires checking kernel logs for related errors or kernel panics involving drm/xe or external BO operations.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability could cause system instability, crashes, or data corruption if a user job accesses memory that is being moved or modified by a kernel operation. It may also lead to security issues like unauthorized memory access or privilege escalation.

Mitigation Strategies

Update your Linux kernel to the latest stable version that includes the fix for this vulnerability. Monitor kernel logs for any signs of race conditions or memory access issues related to DRM/XE operations.

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