CVE-2026-72177 mm/damon/sysfs-schemes: fix dir put orders in access_pattern_add_dirs()
Local attackers can trigger uninitialized memory dereference or memory leaks in the Linux kernel DAMON sysfs interface, potentially causing system crashes.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-72177?
CVE-2026-72177 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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:
mm/damon/sysfs-schemes: fix dir put orders in access_pattern_add_dirs()
Patch series "mm/damon/sysfs-schemes: fix wrong directories put orders in error paths".
Error paths of damon_sysfs_access_pattern_add_dirs() and damon_sysfs_scheme_add_dirs() functions put references to directories in wrong orders. As a result, uninitialized memory dereference and/or memory leak can happen. Fix those.
This patch (of 2):
In access_pattern_add_dirs(), error handling path puts references starting from setup failed directories. If the failure happpened from the initial allication in the setup functions, uninitialized memory dereference happen. The allocation failures will not commonly happen, but the consequence is quite bad. Fix the wrong reference put orders.
The issue was discovered [1] by Sashiko.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72177?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72177?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-72177 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72177 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72177, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72177, GHSA-6mfj-xx36-5894, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72177.