# CVE-2026-74605: eventfs: Use children field for rcu head and add memory barriers

> A race condition in the Linux kernel eventfs subsystem can lead to memory corruption and denial of service during inode freeing.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 22 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-97088, BELL-CVE-2026-74605, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74605, GHSA-c64v-3vw2-pvwh, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74605

## What is CVE-2026-74605?

CVE-2026-74605 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 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:

eventfs: Use children field for rcu head and add memory barriers

When an eventfs inode is freed, it sets ei->is_freed and then uses its
ei->list to add it to the srcu link list as the list field is a union with
the rcu list head. As the ei->list is used to iterate over an SRCU
protected list without taking the eventfs_mutex, there's nothing stopping
the iteration over that list to see the ei->rcu instead of the ei->list
and it will read a corrupt target.

To fix this, change the union of the rcu list head with the children list.
On freeing the eventfs inode, set the is_free and execute a smp_wmb()
before adding the eventfs inode to the SRCU list.

On iteration of the ei->children list, at the start, execute a smp_rmb()
and then read the is_freed of the ei to see if the children list is still
valid. If is_freed is set, then the ei_child read is not valid and the
loop should exit immediately.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74605?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-74605?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-74605 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74605 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-74605 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-74605 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74605 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74605/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74605/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-74605
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-74605
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-74605

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74605/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.