published September 25, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tracing: Keep the entry count when the histogram stats allocation fails
print_entries() uses n_entries both as the number of sort entries and as
its own return value, so the -ENOMEM it stores when the stats allocation
fails overwrites the count that the cleanup still needs:
n_entries = tracing_map_sort_entries(map, ...);
if (n_entries < 0)
return n_entries;
...
if (!stats) {
n_entries = -ENOMEM;
goto out;
}
...
out:
tracing_map_destroy_sort_entries(sort_entries, n_entries);
tracing_map_destroy_sort_entries() takes an unsigned int and loops up to
it, so -ENOMEM arrives as 4294967284. It walks an array of at most
map->max_elts pointers and calls destroy_sort_entry(), which dereferences
and frees, on whatever lies past the end.
Reading the hist file of a trigger with a .percent value, with that
allocation forced to fail:
BUG: KASAN: vmalloc-out-of-bounds in tracing_map_destroy_sort_entries+0xa0/0xb0
Read of size 8 at addr ffffc90000045000 by task init/1
tracing_map_destroy_sort_entries+0xa0/0xb0
hist_show+0x6f7/0x1df0
seq_read_iter+0x2b8/0x1190
vfs_read+0x176/0xa40
The buggy address belongs to a 4-page vmalloc region starting at
ffffc90000041000 allocated at tracing_map_sort_entries+0x5c/0xd50
A few pages further the fault is fatal. The registers at the oops confirm
the bound: the loop's end pointer less the array start, over the pointer
size, is 4294967284.
Return the error in a separate variable and leave n_entries holding the
count, the way tracing_map_sort_entries() does on its own error path.
The stats block is only entered for a value carrying .percent or .graph,
which __create_val_field() has rejected since v6.3, so this cannot be
reached in mainline as it stands. It becomes reachable again with
"tracing: hist: let values keep the percent and graph modifiers", so it
should be applied first.