CVE-2026-63809

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: use kvfree() for replaced sysctl write buffer proc_sys_call_handler() allocates its temporary sysctl buffer with kvzalloc() and passes it to __cgroup_bpf_run_filter_sysctl(). Since kvzalloc() may fall back to vmalloc() for large allocations, freeing that buffer with kfree() is wrong and can corrupt memory. Use kvfree() to safely handle both kmalloc and kvzalloc()/vmalloc allocations. The bug was first flagged by an experimental analysis tool we are developing for kernel memory-management bugs while analyzing v6.13-rc1. The tool is still under development and is not yet publicly available. Manual inspection confirms that the bug is still present in v7.1-rc5. Reproduced the bug based on v7.1-rc4 in a QEMU x86_64 guest booted with KASAN and CONFIG_FAILSLAB enabled. To exercise the replacement path, the test tree also included the accompanying fix for the stale ret == 1 check in __cgroup_bpf_run_filter_sysctl(). The reproducer confines failslab injections to the proc_sys_call_handler() range, uses stacktrace-depth=32, and injects fail-nth=1 while writing 8191 bytes to /proc/sys/kernel/domainname from a task in the target cgroup. Under that setup, fail-nth=1 triggered the fault: BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffeb0200024d48 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 SMP KASAN NOPTI CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 209 Comm: repro_proc_sys_ Not tainted 7.1.0-rc4-00686-g97625979a5d4 PREEMPT(lazy) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:kfree+0x6e/0x510 ... Call Trace: <TASK> ? __cgroup_bpf_run_filter_sysctl+0x626/0xc30 __cgroup_bpf_run_filter_sysctl+0x74d/0xc30 ? __pfx___cgroup_bpf_run_filter_sysctl+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? __kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x345/0x870 ? proc_sys_call_handler+0x250/0x480 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f proc_sys_call_handler+0x3a2/0x480 ? __pfx_proc_sys_call_handler+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? selinux_file_permission+0x39f/0x500 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? lock_is_held_type+0x9e/0x120 vfs_write+0x98e/0x1000 ... </TASK> With this fix applied on top of the same test setup, rerunning the reproducer with fail-nth=1 yields no corresponding Oops reports.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2026-07-19
Last modified 2026-07-19
Patch available
Yes

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 5.10.20, 5.11.3, 5.12 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.10.260, 5.15.211, 6.1.177, 6.6.144, 6.12.95, 6.18.38, 7.1.3, 7.2-rc1 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 5.10.20 ≥ 5.11.3 ≥ 5.12
Fixed in
✓ 5.10.260 5.10.x ✓ 5.15.211 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.177 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.144 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.95 6.12.x ✓ 6.18.38 6.18.x ✓ 7.1.3 7.1.x ✓ 7.2-rc1

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2026-63809?

    CVE-2026-63809 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.10.20 onward and has been patched in 5.10.260, 5.15.211, 6.1.177 and others. CVE-2026-63809 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-63809?

    Yes — CVE-2026-63809 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.260, 5.15.211, 6.1.177 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.10.20 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2026-63809 actively exploited?

    No — CVE-2026-63809 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.