CVE-2026-31578: Linux Kernel

High severity, CVSS 7.8. EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: as102: fix to not free memory after the device is registered in as102_usb_probe() In as102_usb driver, the following race condition occurs: ``` CPU0 CPU1 as102_usb_probe() kzalloc(); // alloc as102_dev_t .... usb_register_dev(); fd = sys_open("/path/to/dev"); // open as102 fd .... usb_deregister_dev(); .... kfree(); // free as102_dev_t .... sys_close(fd); as102_release() // UAF!! as102_usb_release() kfree(); // DFB!! ``` When a USB character device registered with usb_register_dev() is later unregistered (via usb_deregister_dev() or disconnect), the device node is removed so new open() calls fail. However, file descriptors that are already open do not go away immediately: they remain valid until the last reference is dropped and the driver's .release() is invoked. In as102, as102_usb_probe() calls usb_register_dev() and then, on an error path, does usb_deregister_dev() and frees as102_dev_t right away. If userspace raced a successful open() before the deregistration, that open FD will later hit as102_release() --> as102_usb_release() and access or free as102_dev_t again, occur a race to use-after-free and double-free vuln. The fix is to never kfree(as102_dev_t) directly once usb_register_dev() has succeeded. After deregistration, defer freeing memory to .release(). In other words, let release() perform the last kfree when the final open FD is closed.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: before 6.6.136 (fixed in 6.6.136); from 6.7, before 6.12.83 (fixed in 6.12.83); from 6.13, before 6.18.24 (fixed in 6.18.24); from 6.19, before 6.19.14 (fixed in 6.19.14); from 7.0, before 7.0.1 (fixed in 7.0.1)

Published 2026-04-24. Last modified 2026-06-17.