Local privilege escalation via eventfs inode-free race
Published Aug 22, 2026 · Updated Aug 25, 2026
Use-after-free in Linux eventfs allows local users with tracefs read/write access to gain kernel privileges or crash the system. During concurrent eventfs directory iteration and inode teardown, free_ei() repurposes ei->list as an RCU head while eventfs_iterate() can still follow it as a list, causing corrupt-pointer traversal of freed kernel memory. The race requires local access to read eventfs directories and add or remove kprobes through kprobe_events; no separate user interaction is required.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Linux eventfs allows local users with tracefs read/write access to gain kernel privileges or crash the system. During concurrent eventfs directory iteration and inode teardown, free_ei() repurposes ei->list as an RCU head while eventfs_iterate() can still follow it as a list, causing corrupt-pointer traversal of freed kernel memory. The race requires local access to read eventfs directories and add or remove kprobes through kprobe_events; no separate user interaction is required.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-74605
- Published
- Aug 22, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 25, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-367, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 22, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 25, 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?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=305c4e4d80aca2c2d9cf2ebdea56e2eca6d3a6aa
- Affected versionversion=6.6.18 <6.7
- Affected versionversion=6.7.6 <6.8
- Affected versionversion=6.8
- Affected versionversion=704f960dbee2f1634f4b4e16f208cb16eaf41c1e <004f7232e49730448f91665e76bdd7dff8e0c638
- Affected versionversion=704f960dbee2f1634f4b4e16f208cb16eaf41c1e <f0ece16ffca7384787b692431961ce202907acf5
- Affected versionversion=f3f41f444b321ec393edbc251e024fd62658ce55
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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