CVE-2026-31442 dmaengine: idxd: Fix possible invalid memory access after FLR

What is CVE-2026-31442?

CVE-2026-31442 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 22 Apr 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

dmaengine: idxd: Fix possible invalid memory access after FLR

In the case that the first Function Level Reset (FLR) concludes correctly, but in the second FLR the scratch area for the saved configuration cannot be allocated, it's possible for a invalid memory access to happen.

Always set the deallocated scratch area to NULL after FLR completes.

Weakness: CWE-125, CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-31442?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-31442?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2026-31442 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31442 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-31442, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31442, GHSA-8c5h-wq74-72cw, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31442.