Fatal kernel crash via unsigned error-count conversion
Published Sep 25, 2026 · Updated Sep 25, 2026
Out-of-bounds access in Linux 6.1.23 and later affected branches allows local users with trace histogram access to crash the kernel. In print_entries(), an allocation failure replaces the valid sort-entry count with -ENOMEM, which is converted to a huge unsigned cleanup bound. The path requires reading a configured .percent or .graph trace histogram while statistics allocation fails, after which cleanup dereferences and frees pointers beyond the array and can trigger a fatal page fault.
Summary
What happened
Out-of-bounds access in Linux 6.1.23 and later affected branches allows local users with trace histogram access to crash the kernel. In print_entries(), an allocation failure replaces the valid sort-entry count with -ENOMEM, which is converted to a huge unsigned cleanup bound. The path requires reading a configured .percent or .graph trace histogram while statistics allocation fails, after which cleanup dereferences and frees pointers beyond the array and can trigger a fatal page fault.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-97920
- Published
- Sep 25, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 25, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 25, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 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=6.1.23 <6.2
- Affected versionversion=6.2
- Affected versionversion=93454d1a306ea975294b861d32ffa1e44b20c733
- Affected versionversion=abaa5258ce5e5887a9de049f50a85dc023391a1c <06f5634ec5584954177f9a22e36b3bfb398a971b
- Affected versionversion=abaa5258ce5e5887a9de049f50a85dc023391a1c <17e87ce55f877efff1b08fe509e8bf91378cbbc9
- Affected versionversion=abaa5258ce5e5887a9de049f50a85dc023391a1c <9bd8321f5370295d1ae96dd17d43be3c9edd441b
- Affected versionversion=abaa5258ce5e5887a9de049f50a85dc023391a1c <c80b2a8067d58ff7d268ceef781c68b37a16c321
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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Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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