Race Condition Vulnerability in Linux Kernel Affecting Ftrace Operations

CVE-2026-90002

What is CVE-2026-90002?

A race condition vulnerability has been identified in the Linux kernel related to ftrace operations. This vulnerability occurs due to improper handling of trace instances when using specific ftrace operation files, such as set_ftrace_filter and set_ftrace_notrace. In scenarios where these files are accessed simultaneously while an instance is being removed, there exists a risk that the underlying ftrace operations could be freed, leading to a potential use-after-free situation that may crash the kernel. To mitigate this issue, implementations must ensure that the trace_array is properly referenced before access to ftrace_ops. This involves passing the trace_array as file private data, thereby avoiding the use of freed memory and maintaining system stability.

References