CVE-2026-23159

Name of the Vulnerable Software and Affected Versions Linux kernel (affected versions not specified)

Description The Linux kernel contains a flaw in the perf subsystem related to user space stack tracing. A race condition can occur when a task is exiting, leading to a NULL pointer dereference if perf attempts to read the memory of the task during this time. Specifically, the issue arises from changes in how user tasks are identified, with kernel threads potentially having their own mm fields and the need to account for tasks in the process of exiting. The is user task() helper function was introduced to address this by combining flag checks with mm field validation to ensure safe memory access.

Recommendations At the moment, there is no information about a newer version that contains a fix for this vulnerability.