Use After Free in Linux
CVE-2026-64251
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pwrseq: core: fix use-after-free in pwrseq_debugfs_seq_next() pwrseq_debugfs_seq_next() declares 'next' with __free(put_device), which causes put_device() to be called on the returned pointer when the variable goes out of scope. This results in a use-after-free since the seq_file framework receives a pointer whose reference has already been dropped. Simply removing __free(put_device) would fix the UAF but would leak the reference acquired by bus_find_next_device(), as stop() only calls up_read(&pwrseq_sem) and never releases the device reference. Fix this by making the reference counting consistent across all seq_file callbacks, matching the standard pattern used by PCI and SCSI: - start(): use get_device() so it returns a referenced pointer. - next(): explicitly put_device(curr) to release the previous device's reference (no NULL check needed - the seq_file framework only calls next() while the previous return was non-NULL). - stop(): put_device(data) to release the last iterated device's reference, with a NULL guard since stop() may be called with NULL when start() returned NULL or next() reached end-of-sequence.
Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free
EPSS: 0.001 (1.8th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Linux — versions 6.18.38, 7.2-rc1, 249ebf3f65f8530beb2cbfb91bff1d83ba88d23c
- Linux Linux_kernel
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-64251?
- CVE-2026-64251 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-07-24.
- How severe is CVE-2026-64251?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.