CVE-2026-68357 json
watchdog: pretimeout: Fix UAF in watchdog_unregister_governor()
published 2026-08-10 2 mo ago modified 2026-08-19 2 mo ago also EUVD-2026-55458
- cvss
- —
- not scored
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.2%
- EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 7%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
watchdog: pretimeout: Fix UAF in watchdog_unregister_governor()
When a watchdog governor is unregistered, it updates existing watchdog devices that were using this governor by falling back to `default_gov`.
If the governor being unregistered is currently set as `default_gov`, the `default_gov` is never cleared. This leads to 2 use-after-free issues: 1. New watchdog devices registered after this point will inherit the dangling `default_gov`. 2. Existing watchdog devices using the unregistered governor will have their `wdd->gov` reassigned to the dangling `default_gov`.
Fix the UAF by clearing `default_gov` if it matches the governor being unregistered.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 5.10.265, 5.15.216, 6.1.183, 6.6.148, 6.12.101, 6.18.42, 7.1.6, 7.2
- linux Debian 12 6.1.187-1
- linux Debian 13 6.12.101-1
- linux Debian 14 7.1.6-1
- linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.101-1~deb12u1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68357
- linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-198.208
- linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-147.147
- linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-38.38
- linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1117.124
- linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1067.70
- linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1014.14
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1118.128
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1071.79
ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68357
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-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1
- kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1
- kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1
- kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1
- kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP7, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 +2 more 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1
- kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1
- kernel-obs-build SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1
- kernel-default-base SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1.150700.17.45.1
suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1SUSE-SU-2026:23887-1SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1SUSE-SU-2026:23897-1SUSE-SU-2026:23881-1SUSE-SU-2026:4282-1
- kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
- dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
- kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
- kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
- kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
- kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
- kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
- kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/b9ae33faa96bdec6bc60e4c5f8f53786182e4207 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/472ec1e34ff0bb26379805cae808f658cce58c35 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/7a2ee3ec6f208307eca1119a343c7b5d39c03708 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/2e47b91b9b4020fcc01def14d6b6556d66074cf4 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/0ca252720f0e38411cfec3431db9bb1aed0a412c commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/7d1658b066de30f4b23afc14814d22416a971e6e commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/7993d626983cc58fbde9607333cfd2d57725c197 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/7362ba0f9c96ac3ad6a2ca3995bd9fc9a28a8661 commit
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-2026-68357 updated cvss 5.5
kernel: watchdog: pretimeout: Fix UAF in watchdog_unregister_governor()
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernelaffected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
-
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 morenot 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
0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/b9ae33faa96bdec6bc60e4c5f8f53786182e4207
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/472ec1e34ff0bb26379805cae808f658cce58c35
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/7a2ee3ec6f208307eca1119a343c7b5d39c03708
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/2e47b91b9b4020fcc01def14d6b6556d66074cf4
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/0ca252720f0e38411cfec3431db9bb1aed0a412c
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/7d1658b066de30f4b23afc14814d22416a971e6e
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/7993d626983cc58fbde9607333cfd2d57725c197
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/7362ba0f9c96ac3ad6a2ca3995bd9fc9a28a8661
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-68357
- NVD CVE-2026-68357
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.