tracing: Free histogram var refs regardless of how often they are referenced
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Free histogram var refs regardless of how often they are referenced Using the same variable three or more times in one hist trigger leaks the variable reference and its strings when the trigger is removed. commit 656fe2ba85e8 ("tracing: Use hist trigger's var_ref array to destroy var_refs") made a trigger's var_refs[] array the only owner of a var ref: destroy_hist_field() returns early for HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF, so the field expressions never destroy one. One entry, freed once, no count needed. commit 8bcebc77e85f ("tracing: Fix histogram code when expression has same var as value") then made repeated references share one object and added a count of them. Only the increment side exists, since those expressions still return early and never drop a reference, so __destroy_hist_field() sees how many references were created rather than how many are left. It frees when the decremented count is 0 or 1, so two references work and three or more leak. Sharing kept one array entry per object, and create_var_ref() searches and appends within a single trigger, so nothing outside it holds the object. Removing a trigger whose variables are still referenced is already refused by check_var_refs() with -EBUSY. Drop the count and free unconditionally.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 4.20, 5.5
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.189, 6.6.158, 6.12.111, 6.18.53, 7.2.7, 7.3
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 4 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-97922
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-m6gp-f257-gxcp
- 2026-10-03 Fix available: Linux/[email protected], Linux/[email protected], Linux/Linux@a1f1d64a0a9791c842c4646253daf6ac0313eac7 +1 · CNA
- 2026-10-03 2 new references · CNA
- 2026-10-19 Fix available: Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-11-07 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a1f1d64a0a9791c842c4646253daf6ac0313eac7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b513a4c60a7aa1f4b4c2a48544ab003cb36f1e94
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7b6d67b43caee9183a4374d23641578ea556e6c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4cff53bb19412c6f2d90b50678de5c3903f7f96a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/94bbd65da4ae26592fa1977a74ee94218ab02a26
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4bddcb346a6cf4615ca77f69a589623b877ca267
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Sources
- CVE-2026-97922 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-97922 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-m6gp-f257-gxcp · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-97922 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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