VulnerabilityPublished 25 Mar 2026Updated 31 Jul 2026

CVE-2026-23374: Linux kernel · blktrace: fix __this_cpu_read/write in preemptible context

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium · patch available : update Linux kernel when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 13:47 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 2% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 25 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Ubuntu 25.10linux`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux@6.17.0-40.40?arch=source&distro=questing`Other threats	Affected 6.14.0-15.15 – 6.17.0-40.40 20 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 25.10linux-aws`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-aws@6.17.0-1019.19?arch=source&distro=questing`Other threats	Affected 6.14.0-1005.5 – 6.17.0-1019.19 17 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 25.10linux-azure`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure@6.17.0-1020.20?arch=source&distro=questing`Other threats	Affected 6.14.0-1004.4 – 6.17.0-1020.20 16 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 25.10linux-azure-fde`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure-fde@6.17.0-1017.17?arch=source&distro=questing`Other threats	Affected 6.17.0-1003.3 – 6.17.0-1017.17 10 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 25.10linux-gcp`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gcp@6.17.0-1020.22?arch=source&distro=questing`Other threats	Affected 6.14.0-1006.6 – 6.17.0-1020.22 17 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 25.10linux-oracle`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-oracle@6.17.0-1018.18?arch=source&distro=questing`Other threats	Affected 6.14.0-1005.5 – 6.17.0-1018.18 16 affected builds	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

A patch is available and has been released by Ubuntu and other Linux distributors. Systems running affected Linux kernel versions should be updated to versions 6.8.0-1061.64~22.04.1 or later as provided by the vendor. Due to an ABI change in the kernel update, all third-party kernel modules must be recompiled and reinstalled after upgrading. A system reboot is required to apply the fix. No additional mitigations are specified or required beyond applying the official update.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: blktrace: fix __this_cpu_read/write in preemptible context tracing_record_cmdline() internally uses __this_cpu_read() and __this_cpu_write() on the per-CPU variable trace_cmdline_save, and trace_save_cmdline() explicitly asserts preemption is disabled via lockdep_assert_preemption_disabled(). These operations are only safe when preemption is off, as they were designed to be called from the scheduler context (probe_wakeup_sched_switch() / probe_wakeup()). __blk_add_trace() was calling tracing_record_cmdline(current) early in the blk_tracer path, before ring buffer reservation, from process context where preemption is fully enabled. This triggers the following using blktests/blktrace/002: blktrace/002 (blktrace ftrace corruption with sysfs trace) [failed] runtime 0.367s ... 0.437s something found in dmesg: [ 81.211018] run blktests blktrace/002 at 2026-02-25 22:24:33 [ 81.239580] null_blk: disk nullb1 created [ 81.357294] BUG: using __this_cpu_read() in preemptible [00000000] code: dd/2516 [ 81.362842] caller is tracing_record_cmdline+0x10/0x40 [ 81.362872] CPU: 16 UID: 0 PID: 2516 Comm: dd Tainted: G N 7.0.0-rc1lblk+ #84 PREEMPT(full) [ 81.362877] Tainted: [N]=TEST [ 81.362878] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.17.0-0-gb52ca86e094d-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 81.362881] Call Trace: [ 81.362884] <TASK> [ 81.362886] dump_stack_lvl+0x8d/0xb0 ... (See '/mnt/sda/blktests/results/nodev/blktrace/002.dmesg' for the entire message) [ 81.211018] run blktests blktrace/002 at 2026-02-25 22:24:33 [ 81.239580] null_blk: disk nullb1 created [ 81.357294] BUG: using __this_cpu_read() in preemptible [00000000] code: dd/2516 [ 81.362842] caller is tracing_record_cmdline+0x10/0x40 [ 81.362872] CPU: 16 UID: 0 PID: 2516 Comm: dd Tainted: G N 7.0.0-rc1lblk+ #84 PREEMPT(full) [ 81.362877] Tainted: [N]=TEST [ 81.362878] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.17.0-0-gb52ca86e094d-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 81.362881] Call Trace: [ 81.362884] <TASK> [ 81.362886] dump_stack_lvl+0x8d/0xb0 [ 81.362895] check_preemption_disabled+0xce/0xe0 [ 81.362902] tracing_record_cmdline+0x10/0x40 [ 81.362923] __blk_add_trace+0x307/0x5d0 [ 81.362934] ? lock_acquire+0xe0/0x300 [ 81.362940] ? iov_iter_extract_pages+0x101/0xa30 [ 81.362959] blk_add_trace_bio+0x106/0x1e0 [ 81.362968] submit_bio_noacct_nocheck+0x24b/0x3a0 [ 81.362979] ? lockdep_init_map_type+0x58/0x260 [ 81.362988] submit_bio_wait+0x56/0x90 [ 81.363009] __blkdev_direct_IO_simple+0x16c/0x250 [ 81.363026] ? __pfx_submit_bio_wait_endio+0x10/0x10 [ 81.363038] ? rcu_read_lock_any_held+0x73/0xa0 [ 81.363051] blkdev_read_iter+0xc1/0x140 [ 81.363059] vfs_read+0x20b/0x330 [ 81.363083] ksys_read+0x67/0xe0 [ 81.363090] do_syscall_64+0xbf/0xf00 [ 81.363102] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [ 81.363106] RIP: 0033:0x7f281906029d [ 81.363111] Code: 31 c0 e9 c6 fe ff ff 50 48 8d 3d 66 63 0a 00 e8 59 ff 01 00 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 80 3d 41 33 0e 00 00 74 17 31 c0 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 5b c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 48 83 ec [ 81.363113] RSP: 002b:00007ffca127dd48 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000000 [ 81.363120] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f281906029d [ 81.363122] RDX: 0000000000001000 RSI: 0000559f8bfae000 RDI: 0000000000000000 [ 81.363123] RBP: 0000000000001000 R08: 0000002863a10a81 R09: 00007f281915f000 [ 81.363124] R10: 00007f2818f77b60 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000559f8bfae000 [ 81.363126] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 000000000000000a [ 81.363142] </TASK> The same BUG fires from blk_add_trace_plug(), blk_add_trace_unplug(), and blk_add_trace_rq() paths as well. The purpose of tracin ---truncated---

Impact

This vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or integrity but can cause denial of service by triggering kernel crashes or instability when the affected blktrace code path is executed. The impact is limited to availability disruption on affected Linux kernel versions. There are no known exploits in the wild. The CVSS score of 5.5 reflects a medium severity with local attacker privileges and no user interaction required.

Summary

The Linux kernel's blktrace subsystem used __this_cpu_read() and __this_cpu_write() on the per-CPU variable trace_cmdline_save within tracing_record_cmdline(), which assumes preemption is disabled. However, __blk_add_trace() invoked tracing_record_cmdline() early in the blk_tracer path from process context where preemption is enabled, violating this assumption. This misuse can cause runtime failures such as ftrace corruption and kernel instability, as demonstrated by the blktrace/002 test failure. The issue affects Linux kernel versions prior to 6.8.0-1061.64~22.04.1 and related builds. The vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2026-23374 with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.5 (medium severity), indicating local attack vector with low privileges required, no impact on confidentiality or integrity, but high impact on availability. Official patches have been released by Ubuntu and other vendors, requiring system updates and kernel module recompilation due to ABI changes.

GCVE source: db.gcve.eu
OSV ID: UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23374
Osv Schema Version: 1.7.0
Ecosystems: Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS, Ubuntu:16.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS:16.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Nvidia-BlueField:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-preview:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:Realtime:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Nvidia-BlueField:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:Realtime:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:25.10
CVSS version: 3.1

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 1 Aug 2026, 06:29 UTC

Technical details

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