Findings

CVE-2026-31481

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Drain deferred trigger frees if kthread creation fails Boot-time trigger registration can…

Published Apr 22, 2026 · updated Jun 17, 2026 · linux linux kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Drain deferred trigger frees if kthread creation fails Boot-time trigger registration can fail before the trigger-data cleanup kthread exists. Deferring those frees until late init is fine, but the post-boot fallback must still drain the deferred list if kthread creation never succeeds. Otherwise, boot-deferred nodes can accumulate on trigger_data_free_list, later frees fall back to synchronously freeing only the current object, and the older queued entries are leaked forever. To trigger this, add the following to the kernel command line: trace_event=sched_switch trace_trigger=sched_switch.traceon,sched_switch.traceon The second traceon trigger will fail and be freed. This triggers a NULL pointer dereference and crashes the kernel. Keep the deferred boot-time behavior, but when kthread creation fails, drain the whole queued list synchronously. Do the same in the late-init drain path so queued entries are not stranded there either.

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. Apr 22, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Detected

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Drain deferred trigger frees if kthread creation fails Boot-time trigger registration can fail before the trigger-data cleanup kthread exists. Deferring those frees until late init is fine, but the post-boot fallback must still drain the deferred list if kthread creation never succeeds. Otherwise, boot-deferred nodes can

  2. Jun 17, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Updated

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Drain deferred trigger frees if kthread creation fails Boot-time trigger registration can fail before the trigger-data cleanup kthread exists. Deferring those frees until late init is fine, but the post-boot fallback must still drain the deferred list if kthread creation never succeeds. Otherwise, boot-deferred nodes can

Affected

  • cpe linux/linux kernelversion unspecified
  • cpe linux/linux kernel6.19
  • cpe linux/linux kernel7.0

Sources

  • CVE.orgVulnerability recordCVE-2026-31481

    Official CVE identifier

    cve.org
  • NIST NVDVulnerability recordCVE-2026-31481

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Drain deferred trigger frees if kthread creation fails Boot-time trigger registration can fail before the trigger-data cleanup kthread exists. Deferring those frees until late init is fine, but the pos

    nvd.nist.gov

References