CVE-2026-23012 – mm/damon/core: remove call_control in inactive contexts

CVE ID : CVE-2026-23012

Published : Jan. 25, 2026, 3:15 p.m. | 1 hour, 46 minutes ago

Description : 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.

Severity: 0.0 | NA

Visit the link for more details, such as CVSS details, affected products, timeline, and more…