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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2026-31703 json

writeback: Fix use after free in inode_switch_wbs_work_fn()

published 2026-05-01 6 mo ago modified 2026-08-20 2 mo ago also EUVD-2026-26512

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 1%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

writeback: Fix use after free in inode_switch_wbs_work_fn()

inode_switch_wbs_work_fn() has a loop like:

wb_get(new_wb); while (1) { list = llist_del_all(&new_wb->switch_wbs_ctxs); /* Nothing to do? */ if (!list) break; ... process the items ... }

Now adding of items to the list looks like:

wb_queue_isw() if (llist_add(&isw->list, &wb->switch_wbs_ctxs)) queue_work(isw_wq, &wb->switch_work);

Because inode_switch_wbs_work_fn() loops when processing isw items, it can happen that wb->switch_work is pending while wb->switch_wbs_ctxs is empty. This is a problem because in that case wb can get freed (no isw items -> no wb reference) while the work is still pending causing use-after-free issues.

We cannot just fix this by cancelling work when freeing wb because that could still trigger problematic 0 -> 1 transitions on wb refcount due to wb_get() in inode_switch_wbs_work_fn(). It could be all handled with more careful code but that seems unnecessarily complex so let's avoid that until it is proven that the looping actually brings practical benefit. Just remove the loop from inode_switch_wbs_work_fn() instead. That way when wb_queue_isw() queues work, we are guaranteed we have added the first item to wb->switch_wbs_ctxs and nobody is going to remove it (and drop the wb reference it holds) until the queued work runs.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.18.25, 7.0.2, 7.1
  • linux Debian 14 7.0.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31703

  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-27.27
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1008.8
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1007.7
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1009.9
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1010.10
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1014.14
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-27.27.1
  • linux-nvidia Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1013.13

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31703

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-48.1
  • kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-48.1
  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.59.2
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.59.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.59.2
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.60.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.60.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.60.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:22433-1SUSE-SU-2026:22458-1SUSE-SU-2026:2591-1SUSE-SU-2026:2482-1SUSE-SU-2026:22108-1SUSE-SU-2026:22137-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:20965-1openSUSE-SU-2026:10793-1

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-2026-31703 updated cvss 7.0

kernel: writeback: Fix use after free in inode_switch_wbs_work_fn()

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more 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
    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

Exploit prediction

0.12% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 1% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CISA ADP 3.1 7.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

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.