CVE-2026-52979 net: psp: check for device unregister when creating assoc

What is CVE-2026-52979?

CVE-2026-52979 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Jun 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:

net: psp: check for device unregister when creating assoc

psp_assoc_device_get_locked() obtains a psp_dev reference via psp_dev_get_for_sock() (which uses psp_dev_tryget() under RCU); it then acquires psd->lock and drops the reference. Before the lock is taken, psp_dev_unregister() can run to completion: take psd->lock, clear out state, unlock, drop the registration reference.

The expectation is that the lock prevents device unregistration, but much like with netdevs special care has to be taken when "upgrading" a reference to a locked device. Add the missing check if device is still alive. psp_dev_is_registered() exists already but had no callers, which makes me wonder if I either forgot to add this or lost the check during refactoring...

Weakness: CWE-667

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-52979?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-52979?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-52979 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52979 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-2026-52979, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-52979, GHSA-gf8v-7h89-7w9j, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-52979.