CVE-2026-53085
HIGH 7.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: fix mm lifecycle in open-coded task_vma iterator The open-coded task_vma iterator reads task->mm locklessly and acquires mmap_read_trylock() but never calls mmget(). If the task exits concurrently, the mm_struct can be freed as it is not SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU, resulting in a use-after-free. Safely read task->mm with a trylock on alloc_lock and acquire an mm reference. Drop the reference via bpf_iter_mmput_async() in _destroy() and error paths. bpf_iter_mmput_async() is a local wrapper around mmput_async() with a fallback to mmput() on !CONFIG_MMU. Reject irqs-disabled contexts (including NMI) up front. Operations used by _next() and _destroy() (mmap_read_unlock, bpf_iter_mmput_async) take spinlocks with IRQs disabled (pool->lock, pi_lock). Running from NMI or from a tracepoint that fires with those locks held could deadlock. A trylock on alloc_lock is used instead of the blocking task_lock() (get_task_mm) to avoid a deadlock when a softirq BPF program iterates a task that already holds its alloc_lock on the same CPU.
Severe if exploited (CVSS 7.8), but no known exploitation and low modeled probability. Patch on a normal cadence.
Exploitation likelihood
0.1%chance of exploitation in 30 days · 2nd percentile
Impact if exploited
7.8CVSS 3.1 · HIGH
- ConfidentialityHigh
- IntegrityHigh
- AvailabilityHigh
What an attacker needs
- ⚠Access: Requires local access to the host
- ⚠Privileges: Requires a low-privilege account
- ✓User interaction: No user interaction needed
- ✓Complexity: No special conditions — reliably repeatable
✓ lowers the bar for an attacker · ⚠ raises it
Affected
Products Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-825
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
Technical & other
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/239cec25a22662dbd80f57d94b38178c8be95269
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d0862de7c866c5bd7c32531f66738c21197af888
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/43683bb280330f3d36f0f2a3932a4867b9603e9c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d8e27d2d22b6e2df3a0125b8c08e9aace38c954c
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-53085
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2492404
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-53085.json