Use-after-free in Linux kernel's Performance Events subsystem

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

• linux linux kernel5.13 and later · before 5.15.104
• linux linux kernel5.16 and later · before 6.1.21
• linux linux kernel6.2 and later · before 6.2.8

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (Google). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

• Linux Linux Kernel

  • 5.13 and later · before 6.3affected

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

• CVE-2022-0847A flaw was found in the way the "flags" member of the new pipe buffer structure was lacking proper initialization in copy_page_to_iter_pipe KEV
  89Now
• CVE-2021-22555Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACEKEV
  85Now
• CVE-2016-5195Race condition in mm/gup.c in the Linux kernel 2.x through 4.x before 4.8.3 allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging incorrect haKEV
  83Now

Published before and after this one in the same product

• ← EarlierCVE-2023-0458Apr 26, 2023 · Spectre V1 Gadget in do_prlimit in the Linux Kernel
  18Monitor
• ← EarlierCVE-2023-31436Apr 28, 2023 · qfq_change_class in net/sched/sch_qfq.c in the Linux kernel before 6.2.13 allows an out-of-bounds write because lmax can exceed QFQ_MIN_LMAX
  31Monitor
• Later →CVE-2023-2236May 1, 2023 · Use-after-free in Linux kernel's Performance Events subsystem
  31Monitor

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Root cause

After a memory region is freed, another reference pointing to it is still used. By then, the same region may have been allocated for different data.

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

1free(dev->buf);2/* ... another thread is still running ... */3process(dev->buf);

1lock(&dev->lock);2free(dev->buf);3dev->buf = NULL;4unlock(&dev->lock);

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.