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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2026-31526 json

bpf: Fix exception exit lock checking for subprogs

published 2026-04-22 6 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2026-24917

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 2%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bpf: Fix exception exit lock checking for subprogs

process_bpf_exit_full() passes check_lock = !curframe to check_resource_leak(), which is false in cases when bpf_throw() is called from a static subprog. This makes check_resource_leak() to skip validation of active_rcu_locks, active_preempt_locks, and active_irq_id on exception exits from subprogs.

At runtime bpf_throw() unwinds the stack via ORC without releasing any user-acquired locks, which may cause various issues as the result.

Fix by setting check_lock = true for exception exits regardless of curframe, since exceptions bypass all intermediate frame cleanup. Update the error message prefix to "bpf_throw" for exception exits to distinguish them from normal BPF_EXIT.

Fix reject_subprog_with_rcu_read_lock test which was previously passing for the wrong reason. Test program returned directly from the subprog call without closing the RCU section, so the error was triggered by the unclosed RCU lock on normal exit, not by bpf_throw. Update __msg annotations for affected tests to match the new "bpf_throw" error prefix.

The spin_lock case is not affected because they are already checked [1] at the call site in do_check_insn() before bpf_throw can run.

[1] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/kernel/bpf/verifier.c?h=v7.0-rc4#n21098

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.12.114, 6.18.21, 6.19.11, 7.0
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.115-2
  • linux Debian 14 6.19.11-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31526

  • kernel-syms Linux Micro Extras 6.2 6.12.0-160000.33.1
  • kernel-obs-build Linux Micro Extras 6.2 6.12.0-160000.33.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:21834-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-31526 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: bpf: Fix exception exit lock checking for subprogs

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
3 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.13% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.