CVE-2026-23158: Linux Kernel

High severity, CVSS 7.8. EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: gpio: virtuser: fix UAF in configfs release path The gpio-virtuser configfs release path uses guard(mutex) to protect the device structure. However, the device is freed before the guard cleanup runs, causing mutex_unlock() to operate on freed memory. Specifically, gpio_virtuser_device_config_group_release() destroys the mutex and frees the device while still inside the guard(mutex) scope. When the function returns, the guard cleanup invokes mutex_unlock(&dev->lock), resulting in a slab use-after-free. Limit the mutex lifetime by using a scoped_guard() only around the activation check, so that the lock is released before mutex_destroy() and kfree() are called.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: from 6.11, before 6.12.69 (fixed in 6.12.69); from 6.13, before 6.18.9 (fixed in 6.18.9); version 6.19 only

Published 2026-02-14. Last modified 2026-06-17.