Medium [CVE-2026-68146] Linux kernel ftrace: Data corruption and undefined behavior due to race condition in trace_parser.
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-68146 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ftrace: Add global mutex to serialize trace_parser access In ftrace, the trace_parser structure is allocated and initialized when a trace file is opened, and is subsequently used across write and release handlers to parse user input.
The affected handler paths and their specific functions are: - Open paths: ftrace_regex_open(), ftrace_graph_open() - Write paths: ftrace_regex_write(), ftrace_graph_write() - Release paths: ftrace_regex_release(), ftrace_graph_release() If userspace opens a trace file descriptor and shares it across multiple threads, concurrent write calls will race on the parser's internal state, specifically the 'idx', 'cont', and 'buffer' fields, leading to corrupted input or undefined behavior.
Fix this by adding a global mutex, parser_lock, to serialize all access to trace_parser across write and release paths, preventing concurrent corruption of parser state. A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ftrace tracing subsystem.
This can result in corrupted input or undefined behavior within the kernel, potentially impacting system stability. Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 5.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-820.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
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