CVE-2026-74673 Input: evdev - fix information leak in evdev_pass_values()
A local attacker can read uninitialized kernel stack memory via evdev input events, potentially exposing sensitive information.
- 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-2026-74673?
CVE-2026-74673 is a 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:
Input: evdev - fix information leak in evdev_pass_values()
In evdev_pass_values(), the input_event structure is allocated on the kernel stack and populated field-by-field. However, it is never fully initialized. On architectures where struct input_event contains explicit or implicit padding (such as the 32-bit __pad field on SPARC64), these padding bytes are left uninitialized.
When this event structure is subsequently passed to the client buffer and later copied to userspace, the uninitialized padding bytes leak kernel stack memory, potentially exposing sensitive information.
Similar issues exist in __evdev_queue_syn_dropped and __pass_event.
Fix this by explicitly zeroing the entire event structure with memset() before populating its fields. This ensures all padding bytes are cleared before the data crosses the security boundary.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74673?
How do I fix CVE-2026-74673?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-74673 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74673 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-97176, BELL-CVE-2026-74673, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74673, GHSA-9jxc-22p7-gqq4, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74673.