apparmor: fix use-after-free in rawdata dedup loop
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: apparmor: fix use-after-free in rawdata dedup loop aa_replace_profiles() walks ns->rawdata_list to dedup the incoming policy blob against entries already attached to existing profiles. Per the kernel-doc on struct aa_loaddata, list membership does not hold a reference: profiles hold pcount, and when the last pcount drops, do_ploaddata_rmfs() is queued on a workqueue that takes ns->lock and removes the entry. Between dropping the last pcount and the workqueue running, an entry remains on the list with pcount == 0. aa_get_profile_loaddata() is an unconditional kref_get() on pcount, so when the dedup loop hits such an entry, refcount hardening reports refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free. inside aa_replace_profiles(), and the poisoned counter then trips "saturated" and "underflow" warnings on the subsequent uses of the same loaddata. Before commit a0b7091c4de4 ("apparmor: fix race on rawdata dereference") the dedup path used a get_unless_zero-style helper on a single counter, so the existing "if (tmp)" guard was meaningful. The split-refcount refactor introduced aa_get_profile_loaddata(), which has plain kref_get() semantics, and the guard quietly became a no-op. Introduce aa_get_profile_loaddata_not0(), matching the existing _not0 convention used by aa_get_profile_not0(), and use it for the rawdata_list dedup lookup so dying entries are skipped. Reproduced on x86_64 with v7.1-rc5 in QEMU+KVM running Ubuntu 24.04 + stress-ng 0.17.06: stress-ng --apparmor 1 --klog-check --timeout 60s Without this patch the three refcount_t warnings fire within a few seconds. With it the same 60 s run is clean. Coverage is a smoke-test only; a longer soak with CONFIG_KASAN, CONFIG_KCSAN and CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING would be welcome from anyone with the cycles.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 5.10.253 to before 5.10.261; 5.15.203 to before 5.15.212; 6.1.169 to before 6.1.177; 6.6.130 to before 6.6.144; 6.12.77 to before 6.12.95; 6.18.18 to before 6.18.38; 6.19.8 to before 6.20 | 5.10.261, 5.15.212, 6.1.177, 6.6.144, 6.12.95, 6.18.38, 6.20 | Patch available | CNA |
| Linux | Linux | 7.0 and later | 5.10.261, 5.15.212, 6.1.177, 6.6.144, 6.12.95, 6.18.38, 7.1.3, 7.2 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 5.10.253 to before 5.10.261; 5.15.203 to before 5.15.212; 6.1.169 to before 6.1.177; 6.6.130 to before 6.6.144; 6.12.77 to before 6.12.95; 6.18.18 to before 6.18.38; 6.19.8 to before 6.20 Fixed in 5.10.261, 5.15.212, 6.1.177, 6.6.144, 6.12.95, 6.18.38, 6.20 Patch available CNA
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 7.0 and later Fixed in 5.10.261, 5.15.212, 6.1.177, 6.6.144, 6.12.95, 6.18.38, 7.1.3, 7.2 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.10.261, 5.15.212, 6.1.177, 6.6.144, 6.12.95, 6.18.38, 6.20
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.10.261, 5.15.212, 6.1.177, 6.6.144, 6.12.95, 6.18.38, 7.1.3, 7.2
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 5 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-63827
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-gpp3-g5wp-8xhw
- 2026-10-20 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/643221da57dbb1a8fd800610331cf1ec27969f71
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b17f0c59cc1525765625cf07d0391b7f9c1ed7e5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a7a2890028f16e5b0af0bb005d80fcb32559cca3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15fd83a1e42ede15070968806bb6c8b1a5170688
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce261a20b41db522e320a41bbf1292bf85af66df
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c3ca2631073b2cef06824fd2bfc452ff7a1023de
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5e34fa9f6f7cd688ae153fff13139a5cf2d42339
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6f060496d03e4dc560a40f73770bd08335cb7a27
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Sources
- CVE-2026-63827 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-63827 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-gpp3-g5wp-8xhw · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-63827 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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