CVE-2026-74753: perf: Reject exited events as group leaders

Q: What conditions are required for exploitation?

An attacker needs an open file descriptor for a perf event configured with remove-on-exec after that event has entered the EXIT state and had its group relationships detached. They must then use that exited event as a group leader when creating a new sibling event, and the leader must subsequently be closed.

Q: What is the resulting failure condition?

The newly created sibling can retain a group_leader pointer to an event that has been freed. This creates a stale pointer condition after the exited leader is closed.

Q: Is this limited to a race during event attachment?

Yes. The issue involves an exec in the target task detaching the leader between validation and group attachment. The fix validates the leader while holding the shared context mutex to prevent that transition during attachment.

Q: How can affected behavior be identified?

Affected systems accept a perf event in the EXIT state as a group leader. The corrected behavior rejects group leaders in the EXIT state.

Published Aug 26, 2026

Updated

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

perf: Reject exited events as group leaders

perfeventremoveonexec() sets remove-on-exec events to the EXIT state and detaches their group relationships. The event's file descriptor can remain open, however, and perfeventopen() currently accepts that event as a group leader because its early validation rejects only REVOKED and DEAD events.

A new sibling can consequently be linked to the detached leader. When the leader is closed, perfgroupdetach() observes that its PERFATTACHGROUP bit is already clear and skips the new sibling. The sibling then retains a groupleader pointer to the freed event.

Reject group leaders in the EXIT state. Perform the check while holding the shared context mutex so that an exec in the target task cannot detach the leader between validation and group attachment.

[peterz: make the earlier test fully consistent]

Affected Software

136 affected componentsFixes available

Linux Linux kernel

Microsoft azl3 kernel 6.6.152.1-1<6.6.157.1-1

6.6.157.1-1

debian/linux<6.12.111-1

6.12.111-1

debian/linux<7.1.10-1

7.1.10-1

debian/linux-6.12<6.12.111-1~deb12u1

6.12.111-1~deb12u1

linux/kernel>=6.6.145<6.6.156

6.6.156

linux/kernel>=6.12.96<6.12.108

6.12.108

linux/kernel>=6.18.39<6.18.46

6.18.46

linux/kernel>=7.1.4<7.1.10

7.1.10

debian/linux<=6.12.107-1

6.1.176-16.1.190-16.12.115-27.2.12-17.2.15-1

debian/linux-6.12

6.12.113-1~deb12u1

ubuntu/linux-hwe-edge*

ubuntu/linux-aws-5.0*

ubuntu/linux-aws-5.3*

ubuntu/linux-azure*

ubuntu/linux-azure-5.3*

ubuntu/linux-azure-edge*

ubuntu/linux-gcp*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.3*

ubuntu/linux-gke-4.15*

ubuntu/linux-gke-5.4*

ubuntu/linux-gkeop-5.4*

ubuntu/linux-hwe*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-edge*

ubuntu/linux-oem*

ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.0*

ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.3*

ubuntu/linux-aws-5.11*

ubuntu/linux-aws-5.13*

ubuntu/linux-aws-5.8*

ubuntu/linux-azure-5.11*

ubuntu/linux-azure-5.13*

ubuntu/linux-azure-5.8*

ubuntu/linux-azure-fde*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.11*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.13*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.8*

ubuntu/linux-gke*

ubuntu/linux-gke-5.15*

ubuntu/linux-gkeop*

ubuntu/linux-gkeop-5.15*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.11*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.13*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.8*

ubuntu/linux-intel-5.13*

ubuntu/linux-oem-5.10*

ubuntu/linux-oem-5.13*

ubuntu/linux-oem-5.6*

ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.11*

ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.13*

ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.8*

ubuntu/linux-raspi2*

ubuntu/linux-riscv*

ubuntu/linux-riscv-5.11*

ubuntu/linux-riscv-5.8*

ubuntu/linux-allwinner-5.19*

ubuntu/linux-aws-5.19*

ubuntu/linux-aws-6.2*

ubuntu/linux-aws-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-azure-5.19*

ubuntu/linux-azure-6.2*

ubuntu/linux-azure-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-5.19*

ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-6.2*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.19*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-6.2*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.19*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-6.2*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-intel-iot-realtime*

ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19*

ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2*

ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-nvidia-6.2*

ubuntu/linux-nvidia-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-oem-5.17*

ubuntu/linux-oem-6.0*

ubuntu/linux-oem-6.1*

ubuntu/linux-oem-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-oracle-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-realtime*

ubuntu/linux-riscv*

ubuntu/linux-riscv-5.19*

ubuntu/linux-riscv-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-starfive-5.19*

ubuntu/linux-starfive-6.2*

ubuntu/linux-starfive-6.5*

ubuntu/linux-aws-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-aws-6.17*

ubuntu/linux-aws-7.0*

ubuntu/linux-azure-6.11*

ubuntu/linux-azure-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-azure-6.17*

ubuntu/linux-azure-7.0*

ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-6.17*

ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-7.0*

ubuntu/linux-azure-nvidia-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-6.11*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-gcp-7.0*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-6.11*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-hwe-7.0<7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1

7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1

ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11*

ubuntu/linux-nvidia-6.11*

ubuntu/linux-nvidia-7.0*

ubuntu/linux-oem-6.11*

ubuntu/linux-oem-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-oem-6.8*

ubuntu/linux-oracle-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-oracle-6.17*

ubuntu/linux-oracle-7.0*

ubuntu/linux-raspi-realtime*

ubuntu/linux-realtime*

ubuntu/linux-riscv*

ubuntu/linux-riscv-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-riscv-6.17*

ubuntu/linux-riscv-7.0<7.0.0-42.42.1~24.04.1

7.0.0-42.42.1~24.04.1

ubuntu/linux-realtime-6.14*

ubuntu/linux-realtime-6.17*

ubuntu/linux<7.0.0-42.42

7.0.0-42.42

ubuntu/linux-aws<7.0.0-1016.17

7.0.0-1016.17

ubuntu/linux-azure*

ubuntu/linux-azure-fde*

ubuntu/linux-gcp<7.0.0-1016.18

7.0.0-1016.18

ubuntu/linux-gke*

ubuntu/linux-ibm<7.0.0-1017.17

7.0.0-1017.17

ubuntu/linux-nvidia*

ubuntu/linux-nvidia-bos*

ubuntu/linux-oem-7.0<7.0.0-1017.17

7.0.0-1017.17

ubuntu/linux-oracle<7.0.0-1015.16

7.0.0-1015.16

ubuntu/linux-raspi*

ubuntu/linux-realtime*

ubuntu/linux-riscv<7.0.0-42.42.1

7.0.0-42.42.1

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

Upgrade
Upgrade to a fixed release to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 6.6.157.1-1
Upgrade
Upgrade debian/linux to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 6.12.111-1
Upgrade
Upgrade debian/linux to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.1.10-1
Upgrade
Upgrade debian/linux-6.12 to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 6.12.111-1~deb12u1
Upgrade
Upgrade linux/Kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 6.6.156
Upgrade
Upgrade linux/Kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 6.12.108
Upgrade
Upgrade linux/Kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 6.18.46
Upgrade
Upgrade linux/Kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.1.10
Upgrade
Upgrade debian/linux to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 6.1.176-1Fixed in 6.1.190-1Fixed in 6.12.115-2Fixed in 7.2.12-1Fixed in 7.2.15-1
Upgrade
Upgrade debian/linux-6.12 to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 6.12.113-1~deb12u1
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/linux-hwe-7.0 to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/linux-riscv-7.0 to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.0.0-42.42.1~24.04.1
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/linux to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.0.0-42.42
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/linux-aws to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.0.0-1016.17
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/linux-gcp to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.0.0-1016.18
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/linux-ibm to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.0.0-1017.17
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/linux-oem-7.0 to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.0.0-1017.17
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/linux-oracle to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.0.0-1015.16
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/linux-riscv to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 7.0.0-42.42.1

Event History

Aug 26, 2026

CVE Published

via MITRE·02:37 PM

Data Sourced

via MITRE·02:37 PM

DescriptionSeverity

Data Sourced

via OSV·02:37 PM

DescriptionSeverityAffected Software

Data Sourced

via NVD·03:16 PM

DescriptionSeverity

Aug 27, 2026

Data Sourced

via Microsoft·08:06 AM

DescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software

Parent advisories

This vulnerability appears in the following advisories.

DSA-6528

Peer vulnerabilities

Found alongside the following vulnerabilities.

DLA-4817-1

Frequently Asked Questions

What conditions are required for exploitation?

An attacker needs an open file descriptor for a perf event configured with remove-on-exec after that event has entered the EXIT state and had its group relationships detached. They must then use that exited event as a group leader when creating a new sibling event, and the leader must subsequently be closed.

What is the resulting failure condition?

The newly created sibling can retain a group_leader pointer to an event that has been freed. This creates a stale pointer condition after the exited leader is closed.

Is this limited to a race during event attachment?

Yes. The issue involves an exec in the target task detaching the leader between validation and group attachment. The fix validates the leader while holding the shared context mutex to prevent that transition during attachment.

How can affected behavior be identified?

Affected systems accept a perf event in the EXIT state as a group leader. The corrected behavior rejects group leaders in the EXIT state.

CVE-2026-74753: perf: Reject exited events as group leaders

Affected Software

Remediation

Event History

Parent advisories

Peer vulnerabilities

Frequently Asked Questions

What conditions are required for exploitation?

What is the resulting failure condition?

Is this limited to a race during event attachment?

How can affected behavior be identified?

Company

Resources

Contact