CVE-2026-72449 drm/amdkfd: fix list_del corruption in kfd_criu_resume_svm
An unprivileged user can trigger a use-after-free and double-free in the AMD KFD driver, potentially leading to code execution or privilege escalation.
- 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-2026-72449?
CVE-2026-72449 is a high-severity use after free 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:
drm/amdkfd: fix list_del corruption in kfd_criu_resume_svm
The cleanup tail of kfd_criu_resume_svm() walks svms->criu_svm_metadata_list and kfree()s each struct criu_svm_metadata without removing it from the list. The list head is left pointing at freed kmalloc-96 objects.
A second AMDKFD_IOC_CRIU_OP from the same process re-enters: list_empty() reads the dangling ->next (use-after-free), the loop walks freed entries, and each is kfree()'d again (double-free). This is reachable by an unprivileged render-group user via /dev/kfd with no capabilities required.
Add list_del() before the kfree() so the list is properly emptied. The list_for_each_entry_safe() iterator already caches the next pointer, so unlinking during the walk is safe.
(cherry picked from commit 6322d278a298e2c1430b9d2697743d3a04b788b1)
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72449?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72449?
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-2026-72449 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72449 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72449, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72449, GHSA-xgpc-q5wr-q4v5, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72449.