CVE-2026-98655 PUBLISHED

perf: Require kernel access for text poke events

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: Require kernel access for text poke events

Perf events with exclude_kernel=1 can be opened without kernel perf access. However, exclude_kernel does not suppress text-poke sideband records. Every PERF_RECORD_TEXT_POKE is marked PERF_RECORD_MISC_KERNEL and contains a raw kernel instruction address.

An unprivileged task can therefore open and mmap a task-local software event with text_poke=1. Both opening a count-only tracepoint event and configuring UDP GRO for ESP-in-UDP cause updates to inline static calls; the observer receives the relocated addresses of the modified instructions. For a known kernel image, any such address reveals the runtime kernel text base despite KASLR.

Call perf_allow_kernel() whenever attr.text_poke is set, regardless of exclude_kernel. Events that neither monitor kernel execution nor request text-poke records retain their existing permissions.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from e17d43b93e544f5016c0251d2074c15568d5d963 to 8473f44db9f710ea6f8cafb22f2e3ba6cb8ca9a7 (excl.)
  • affected from e17d43b93e544f5016c0251d2074c15568d5d963 to e506333d1b9f42f1e402acebf1283af3c44a3809 (excl.)
  • affected from e17d43b93e544f5016c0251d2074c15568d5d963 to 677d0b51ac1a0db55d768c4c6399210b3de0795b (excl.)
  • affected from e17d43b93e544f5016c0251d2074c15568d5d963 to 357e8a77a501d96c9517f01f4a211eed5e9c9184 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.9 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.9 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.113 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.56 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.10 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc6 to * (incl.)

References