CVE-2026-98268
Received
Received - Intake
Null Pointer Dereference in Linux Kernel perf Subsystem
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-98268, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-10-06
Last updated on: 2026-10-06
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
perf: Fix null pointer access in is_include_guest_event()
A typical module unload occurring event when there is an active perf
connection leads to freeing of the pmu pointer. The call log is something
like:
..
__pmu_detach_event
pmu_detach_event
pmu_detach_events
perf_pmu_unregister
..
__pmu_detach_event() sets event->pmu to null. When the perf connection
finally is closed, the following stack trace is observed:
Oops: general protection fault, kernel NULL pointer dereference
...
RIP: 0010:_free_event+0x3e/0x370
...
Call Trace:
...
perf_event_release_kernel+0x260/0x2d0
perf_release+0x12/0x20
A call to mediated_pmu_unaccount_event() inside _free_event() is the root
cause of this crash. Adding a check inside is_include_guest_event() ensures
we don't accidentally access a null pmu ptr. In addition to this, we will
now call mediated_pmu_unaccount_event() before clearing the pmu ptr so that
nr_include_guest_events counts are maintained correctly.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | eff95e170275d9e80b968f335cd03d0ac250d2d1 |
| Linux | Linux | eff95e170275d9e80b968f335cd03d0ac250d2d1 |
| Linux | Linux | 7.0 |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
