CVE-2026-74601 PUBLISHED

ring-buffer: Use current_context for safe per-CPU buffer swap

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 15.08.2026 Published: 22.08.2026 Updated: 22.08.2026

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

ring-buffer: Use current_context for safe per-CPU buffer swap

The ring_buffer_swap_cpu() function currently checks the per-CPU committing counter to determine if a buffer is actively being written to before performing the swap. However, there exists a race window where this check can be bypassed:

<pre>ring_buffer_lock_reserve cpu_buffer = buffer->buffers[cpu]; // cpu_buffer_a rb_reserve_next_event rb_start_commit // inc committing if (unlikely(READ_ONCE(cpu_buffer->buffer) != buffer)) {...} __rb_reserve_next rb_move_tail rb_end_commit(cpu_buffer); // dec committing => 0 /* interrupt hits here, successfully swaps! */ local_inc(&cpu_buffer->committing); ring_buffer_unlock_commit cpu_buffer = buffer->buffers[cpu]; // cpu_buffer_b rb_commit rb_end_commit RB_WARN_ON(cpu_buffer, !local_read(&cpu_buffer->committing)) // triggers warning </pre>

The committing counter can temporarily drop to 0 during a single write operation (within rb_move_tail), creating a window where swap can succeed even though the write is still in progress. This leads to inconsistent buffer state and triggers the RB_WARN_ON in rb_commit().

Replace the committing counter check with current_context checks, which are set at the entry of ring_buffer_lock_reserve() and remain valid throughout the entire write operation, providing a reliable indicator of buffer busy state during swap.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 4239c38fe0b3847e1e6d962c74b41b08ba0e2990 to 5b926fb04cb9ef3156dcf88c69a59d3d1a1c4f9f (excl.)
  • affected from 4239c38fe0b3847e1e6d962c74b41b08ba0e2990 to 5e6e2a18c20e88167d414f666032792e8bf19b80 (excl.)
  • affected from 4239c38fe0b3847e1e6d962c74b41b08ba0e2990 to f27bdc43077e4fcb5557dfc315ee8d91e741f483 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 4.5 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 4.5 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.45 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.9 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2 to * (incl.)

References