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CVE-2026-68174 (GCVE-0-2026-68174)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-08-10 11:59 – Updated: 2026-08-17 05:00
VLAI
Title
tracing: Fix union collision of module and refcnt for dynamic events
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Fix union collision of module and refcnt for dynamic events In 'struct trace_event_call', the 'module' pointer and the 'refcnt' atomic variable share the same memory space in a union. For dynamic events, the union member is 'refcnt', which acts as an active reference counter. When a dynamic event (such as kprobe, uprobe, fprobe, eprobe, or wprobe) has a non-zero reference count (e.g. due to active event triggers or perf attachments), its 'call->module' evaluates to a small non-zero integer instead of NULL. When filtering or setting events for a specific module (e.g., writing ':mod:<module>' to 'set_event'), the code in '__ftrace_set_clr_event_nolock()' and 'update_event_fields()' reads 'call->module' directly without checking whether the event is dynamic. This causes the kernel to treat the small integer (refcnt) as a 'struct module' pointer, leading to a NULL/invalid pointer dereference (Oops) when dereferencing the module name. Fix this by ensuring that the 'TRACE_EVENT_FL_DYNAMIC' flag is checked before treating 'call->module' as a valid pointer in these code paths.
Severity
No CVSS data available.
Assigner
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version CPE status
Linux Linux Affected: 4c86bc531e60900053384867c082675bba82c29f , < b6a4575f22925da7e6aa00171e9fc0e5029c0bc9 (git)
Affected: 4c86bc531e60900053384867c082675bba82c29f , < 43a23dfe0024afd3d2b0232e987d0292919a9b24 (git)
Affected: 4c86bc531e60900053384867c082675bba82c29f , < b4eb07bde606c2096b24252be589e735eff6d413 (git)
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Linux Linux Affected: 6.14
Unaffected: 0 , < 6.14 (semver)
Unaffected: 6.18.42 , ≤ 6.18.* (semver)
Unaffected: 7.1.6 , ≤ 7.1.* (semver)
Unaffected: 7.2 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)
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{
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          "programFiles": [
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          "lang": "en",
          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\ntracing: Fix union collision of module and refcnt for dynamic events\n\nIn \u0027struct trace_event_call\u0027, the \u0027module\u0027 pointer and the \u0027refcnt\u0027\natomic variable share the same memory space in a union. For dynamic\nevents, the union member is \u0027refcnt\u0027, which acts as an active\nreference counter.\n\nWhen a dynamic event (such as kprobe, uprobe, fprobe, eprobe, or\nwprobe) has a non-zero reference count (e.g. due to active event\ntriggers or perf attachments), its \u0027call-\u003emodule\u0027 evaluates to a\nsmall non-zero integer instead of NULL.\n\nWhen filtering or setting events for a specific module (e.g., writing\n\u0027:mod:\u003cmodule\u003e\u0027 to \u0027set_event\u0027), the code in\n\u0027__ftrace_set_clr_event_nolock()\u0027 and \u0027update_event_fields()\u0027 reads\n\u0027call-\u003emodule\u0027 directly without checking whether the event is dynamic.\nThis causes the kernel to treat the small integer (refcnt) as a\n\u0027struct module\u0027 pointer, leading to a NULL/invalid pointer dereference\n(Oops) when dereferencing the module name.\n\nFix this by ensuring that the \u0027TRACE_EVENT_FL_DYNAMIC\u0027 flag is checked\nbefore treating \u0027call-\u003emodule\u0027 as a valid pointer in these code paths."
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-08-17T05:00:15.155Z",
        "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
        "shortName": "Linux"
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          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b6a4575f22925da7e6aa00171e9fc0e5029c0bc9"
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          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/43a23dfe0024afd3d2b0232e987d0292919a9b24"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b4eb07bde606c2096b24252be589e735eff6d413"
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      "title": "tracing: Fix union collision of module and refcnt for dynamic events",
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    "assignerShortName": "Linux",
    "cveId": "CVE-2026-68174",
    "datePublished": "2026-08-10T11:59:44.417Z",
    "dateReserved": "2026-07-30T09:28:09.372Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-08-17T05:00:15.155Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
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      "cve": "CVE-2026-68174",
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      "source": "Red Hat CSAF VEX",
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      "source": "SUSE CSAF VEX",
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      "url": "https://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/security/csaf-vex/cve-2026-68174.json",
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    }
  }
}



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Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

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  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
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  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.


Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.