Use-After-Free Vulnerability in Intel Graphics Driver for Linux

CVE-2026-31656

What is CVE-2026-31656?

A race condition exists in the Intel graphics driver for Linux, leading to a use-after-free condition due to improper synchronization between the heartbeat worker and the intel_engine_park_heartbeat function. When concurrently accessing the same resources, the heartbeat worker may attempt to release a request that has already been cleared, resulting in a reference count underflow. This vulnerability can be exploited through a failure to correctly manage state changes, posing a risk to system stability and security. The issue has been mitigated by ensuring atomic operations using xchg() to prevent simultaneous access to the same pointers.

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