Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
no cvss —

CVE-2026-68416 json

mtd: fix double free and WARN_ON in add_mtd_device() error paths

published 2026-08-10 2 mo ago modified 2026-11-06 2 d ago also EUVD-2026-55602

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 5%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

mtd: fix double free and WARN_ON in add_mtd_device() error paths

When device_register() or mtd_nvmem_add() fails inside add_mtd_device() for a partition, the error handling triggers mtd_release() via put_device() or device_unregister(). mtd_release() calls release_mtd_partition() which frees the mtd_info structure. However, callers such as mtd_add_partition() and add_mtd_partitions() also call free_partition() in their error paths, resulting in a double free.

Additionally, release_mtd_partition() hits WARN_ON(!list_empty( &mtd->part.node)) because the partition node is still linked in the parent's partitions list when the release callback fires from the add_mtd_device() error path.

Fix this by overriding dev->type and dev->release before put_device() in the error paths, so that device_release() invokes a no-op function instead of mtd_release(). For the mtd_nvmem_add() failure case, device_unregister() is replaced with device_del() to separate the device removal from the final kobject reference drop, allowing the override to take effect before put_device() is called.

The callers' error paths (list_del + free_partition) remain the sole owners of mtd_info lifetime on add_mtd_device() failure, which is the expected contract.

The normal partition teardown path is not affected: del_mtd_device() goes through kref_put() -> mtd_device_release() -> device_unregister() with dev->type still set to &mtd_devtype, so mtd_release() -> release_mtd_partition() continues to work correctly for the regular removal case.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.6.148, 6.12.101, 6.18.42, 7.1.6, 7.2
  • 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-2026-68416

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-147.147
  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-38.38
  • 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 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1071.79
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1014.14
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1066.74
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1008.9

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68416

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 6.2 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1.160000.2.23
  • kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-azure SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-obs-qa SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:23887-1SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1SUSE-SU-2026:23897-1SUSE-SU-2026:23881-1

  • 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

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-2026-68416 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: mtd: fix double free and WARN_ON in add_mtd_device() error paths

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • 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
    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
2 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

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.