Local service interruption via freed parent pointer
Published Apr 3, 2026 · Updated Apr 3, 2026
Use-after-free in Linux Kernel 4.20 and affected stable branches allows local users to interrupt service during NVDIMM initialization. In nd_async_device_register(), a device_add() allocation failure drops the device reference count to zero before code accesses its parent pointer. Exploitation requires local low-privilege access and the allocation-failure path; the grounded consequence is limited to availability.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Linux Kernel 4.20 and affected stable branches allows local users to interrupt service during NVDIMM initialization. In nd_async_device_register(), a device_add() allocation failure drops the device reference count to zero before code accesses its parent pointer. Exploitation requires local low-privilege access and the allocation-failure path; the grounded consequence is limited to availability.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-31399
- Published
- Apr 3, 2026
- Updated
- Apr 3, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Apr 3, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 3, 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=1490de2bb0836fc0631c04d0559fdf81545b672f
- Affected versionversion=3e63a7f25cc85d3d3e174b9b0e3489ebb7eaf4ab
- Affected versionversion=4.20
- Affected versionversion=4f1a55a4f990016406147cf3e0c9487bf83e50f0
- Affected versionversion=8954771abdea5c34280870e35592c7226a816d95
- Affected versionversion=b6eae0f61db27748606cc00dafcfd1e2c032f0a5 <2c638259ad750833fd46a0cf57672a618542d84c
- Affected versionversion=b6eae0f61db27748606cc00dafcfd1e2c032f0a5 <84af19855d1abdee3c9d57c0684e2868e391793c
- Affected versionversion=b6eae0f61db27748606cc00dafcfd1e2c032f0a5 <9a0fb16ba5b372465a3a1ecd761c6fa911a4ab4d
- Affected versionversion=b6eae0f61db27748606cc00dafcfd1e2c032f0a5 <a226e5b49e5fe8c98b14f8507de670189d191348
- Affected versionversion=b6eae0f61db27748606cc00dafcfd1e2c032f0a5 <a8aec14230322ed8f1e8042b6d656c1631d41163
- Affected versionversion=b6eae0f61db27748606cc00dafcfd1e2c032f0a5 <e48bf8f1d2b12c1c5ba1f609edbd4cde5dadc20e
- Affected versionversion=e31a8418c8df7e6771414f99ed3d95ba8aca4e05
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
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