Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2026-23012)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2026-23012). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.18.7 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/damon/core: remove call_control in inactive contexts

If damon_call() is executed against a DAMON context that is not running,
the function returns error while keeping the damon_call_control object
linked to the context's call_controls list. Let's suppose the object is
deallocated after the damon_call(), and yet another damon_call() is
executed against the same context. The function tries to add the new
damon_call_control object to the call_controls list, which still has the
pointer to the previous damon_call_control object, which is deallocated.
As a result, use-after-free happens.

This can actually be triggered using the DAMON sysfs interface. It is not
easily exploitable since it requires the sysfs write permission and making
a definitely weird file writes, though. Please refer to the report for
more details about the issue reproduction steps.

Fix the issue by making two changes. Firstly, move the final
kdamond_call() for cancelling all existing damon_call() requests from
terminating DAMON context to be done before the ctx->kdamond reset. This
makes any code that sees NULL ctx->kdamond can safely assume the context
may not access damon_call() requests anymore. Secondly, let damon_call()
to cleanup the damon_call_control objects that were added to the
already-terminated DAMON context, before returning the error.

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-23012 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.18.7 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2026-23012" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2026-23012 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.18.7 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 6.18.7.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 6.18.7
```
ステージング環境で 6.18.7 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.17.0"},{"fixed":"6.18.7"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2026-23012 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.18.35-r1
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23012 linux Fixed in: 6.18.8-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23012 linux-hwe-edge