CVE-2026-74272 cxl/region: Resolve region deletion races
A race condition in the Linux kernel CXL region deletion allows local attackers to trigger double-free or use-after-free errors, potentially causing system crashes.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-74272?
CVE-2026-74272 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:
cxl/region: Resolve region deletion races
Sungwoo noticed that the sysfs trigger to delete a region may try to delete a region multiple times. It also has no exclusion relative to the kernel releasing the region via CXL root device teardown.
Instead of installing new cxl root devres actions per region, use the existing root decoder unregistration event to remove all remaining regions. An xarray of regions replaces a devres list of regions.
This handles 3 separate issues with the old approach:
1/ sysfs users racing to delete the same region: no longer possible now that the regions_lock is held over the lookup and deletion.
2/ multiple actions triggering deletion of the same region: solved by erasing regions while holding @regions_lock, and only proceeding on successful erasure.
3/ userspace racing devres_release_all() to trigger the devres not found warning: solved by sysfs unregistration not requiring a release action
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74272?
How do I fix CVE-2026-74272?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-74272 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74272 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-74272, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74272, GHSA-vpp7-5xfq-j7c3, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74272.