CVE-2026-98477 PUBLISHED

perf/core: Fix NULL pmu_ctx passed to pmu->sched_task()

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 25.09.2026 Published: 18.10.2026 Updated: 18.10.2026

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

perf/core: Fix NULL pmu_ctx passed to pmu->sched_task()

perf_pmu_sched_task() returns early when cpuctx->task_ctx is set, and cpc->task_epc is only non-NULL while a task context is scheduled in on this CPU. __perf_pmu_sched_task() therefore always passes NULL:

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00 pc : armv8pmu_sched_task+0x14/0x50 Call trace: armv8pmu_sched_task+0x14/0x50 (P) perf_pmu_sched_task+0xac/0x108 __perf_event_task_sched_out+0x6c/0xe0

Pass &cpc->epc instead, the CPU-wide context for this PMU, which the function already dereferences a few lines up to find pmu.

armv8pmu_sched_task() is the only in-tree implementation that dereferences the argument, and it only reads ->pmu, so the oops needs BRBE, added in v6.17.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from bd27568117664b8b3e259721393df420ed51f57b to b5409311b606d536cc485f3706c242c2afa93edb (excl.)
  • affected from bd27568117664b8b3e259721393df420ed51f57b to 249a2bd87a0e57dc28f36e992807edc9cae309b5 (excl.)
  • affected from bd27568117664b8b3e259721393df420ed51f57b to ec15f6a50183fc01f470af74ad49900fb3731fca (excl.)
  • affected from bd27568117664b8b3e259721393df420ed51f57b to 36bb85cf36cab15fb611cb44b78a5df06e4e69a2 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.2 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.2 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.112 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.55 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.9 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc5 to * (incl.)

References