CVE-2026-68174

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Fix union collision of module and refcnt for dynamic events In 'struct trace_event_call', the 'module' pointer and the 'refcnt' atomic variable share the same memory space in a union. For dynamic events, the union member is 'refcnt', which acts as an active reference counter. When a dynamic event (such as kprobe, uprobe, fprobe, eprobe, or wprobe) has a non-zero reference count (e.g. due to active event triggers or perf attachments), its 'call->module' evaluates to a small non-zero integer instead of NULL. When filtering or setting events for a specific module (e.g., writing ':mod:<module>' to 'set_event'), the code in '__ftrace_set_clr_event_nolock()' and 'update_event_fields()' reads 'call->module' directly without checking whether the event is dynamic. This causes the kernel to treat the small integer (refcnt) as a 'struct module' pointer, leading to a NULL/invalid pointer dereference (Oops) when dereferencing the module name. Fix this by ensuring that the 'TRACE_EVENT_FL_DYNAMIC' flag is checked before treating 'call->module' as a valid pointer in these code paths.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2026-08-10
Last modified 2026-08-17
Patch available
Yes

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 6.14 and later are affected. Fixed in 6.18.42, 7.1.6, 7.2 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 6.14
Fixed in
✓ 6.18.42 6.18.x ✓ 7.1.6 7.1.x ✓ 7.2

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2026-68174?

    CVE-2026-68174 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 6.14 onward and has been patched in 6.18.42, 7.1.6 and 7.2. CVE-2026-68174 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-68174?

    Yes. CVE-2026-68174 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.18.42, 7.1.6 and 7.2. If you are running Linux kernel 6.14 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2026-68174 actively exploited?

    No. CVE-2026-68174 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.