Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-90291

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: module/dups: Fix use-after-free in kmod_dup_req lifetime handling The kmod dups code uses RCU to ensure that a kmod_dup_req instance is freed only after it is no longer referenced. When releasing an instance, the kmod_dup_request_delete() function removes the kmod_dup_req from the dup_kmod_reqs list, waits via synchronize_rcu() and finally frees it. However, this doesn't work correctly because parallel users referencing the instance in kmod_dup_request_exists_wait() don't enter an RCU read-side critical section. This can result in a use-after-free. The kmod_dup_request_exists_wait() function may need to hold a valid reference to a kmod_dup_req instance across a blocking wait until the corresponding modprobe command completes. This makes it unsuitable for RCU. Fix the issue by changing the lifecycle management of kmod_dup_req to use reference counting.

Published 2026-09-17 · last modified 2026-10-21.