CVE-2026-98268

Name	CVE-2026-98268
Description	In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf: Fix null pointer access in is_include_guest_event() A typical module unload occurring event when there is an active perf connection leads to freeing of the pmu pointer. The call log is something like: .. __pmu_detach_event pmu_detach_event pmu_detach_events perf_pmu_unregister .. __pmu_detach_event() sets event->pmu to null. When the perf connection finally is closed, the following stack trace is observed: Oops: general protection fault, kernel NULL pointer dereference ... RIP: 0010:_free_event+0x3e/0x370 ... Call Trace: ... perf_event_release_kernel+0x260/0x2d0 perf_release+0x12/0x20 A call to mediated_pmu_unaccount_event() inside _free_event() is the root cause of this crash. Adding a check inside is_include_guest_event() ensures we don't accidentally access a null pmu ptr. In addition to this, we will now call mediated_pmu_unaccount_event() before clearing the pmu ptr so that nr_include_guest_events counts are maintained correctly.
Source	CVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source Package	Release	Version	Status
linux (PTS)	bookworm	6.1.176-1	fixed
	bookworm (security)	6.1.190-1	fixed
	trixie	6.12.107-1	fixed
	trixie (security)	6.12.113-1	fixed
	forky, sid	7.2.12-1	fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

Package	Type	Release	Fixed Version
linux	source	bookworm	(not affected)
linux	source	trixie	(not affected)
linux	source	(unstable)	7.2.8-1

Notes

[trixie] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
[bookworm] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
https://git.kernel.org/linus/88aed0422f39b22406f35f1e758cea25e7bbcfb5 (7.3-rc4)