Local privilege escalation via i915 VMA use-after-free
Published May 1, 2024 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Use-after-free in i915 VMA handling in Linux allows local users to escalate privileges through a GT parking and retirement race. The __active_retire() path can continue through __i915_vma_retire() after concurrent i915_vma_destroy() frees the VMA because GT wakerefs are released before deactivation completes. An unprivileged local process with access to the i915 graphics path can race those operations, enabling kernel memory corruption, a system crash, or elevated privileges.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in i915 VMA handling in Linux allows local users to escalate privileges through a GT parking and retirement race. The __active_retire() path can continue through __i915_vma_retire() after concurrent i915_vma_destroy() frees the VMA because GT wakerefs are released before deactivation completes. An unprivileged local process with access to the i915 graphics path can race those operations, enabling kernel memory corruption, a system crash, or elevated privileges.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-26939
- Published
- May 1, 2024
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 1, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=5.19
- Affected versionversion=d93939730347360db0afe6a4367451b6f84ab7b1 <0e45882ca829b26b915162e8e86dbb1095768e9e
- Affected versionversion=d93939730347360db0afe6a4367451b6f84ab7b1 <59b2626dd8c8a2e13f18054b3530e0c00073d79f
- Affected versionversion=d93939730347360db0afe6a4367451b6f84ab7b1 <5e3eb862df9f972ab677fb19e0d4b9b1be8db7b5
- Affected versionversion=d93939730347360db0afe6a4367451b6f84ab7b1 <704edc9252f4988ae1ad7dafa23d0db8d90d7190
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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