CVE-2026-46196: Linux Kernel

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracepoint: balance regfunc() on func_add() failure in tracepoint_add_func() When a tracepoint goes through the 0 -> 1 transition, tracepoint_add_func() invokes the subsystem's ext->regfunc() before attempting to install the new probe via func_add(). If func_add() then fails (for example, when allocate_probes() cannot allocate a new probe array under memory pressure and returns -ENOMEM), the function returns the error without calling the matching ext->unregfunc(), leaving the side effects of regfunc() behind with no installed probe to justify them. For syscall tracepoints this is particularly unpleasant: syscall_regfunc() bumps sys_tracepoint_refcount and sets SYSCALL_TRACEPOINT on every task. After a leaked failure, the refcount is stuck at a non-zero value with no consumer, and every task continues paying the syscall trace entry/exit overhead until reboot. Other subsystems providing regfunc()/unregfunc() pairs exhibit similarly scoped persistent state. Mirror the existing 1 -> 0 cleanup and call ext->unregfunc() in the func_add() error path, gated on the same condition used there so the unwind is symmetric with the registration.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: from 4.10, before 6.6.140 (fixed in 6.6.140); from 6.7, before 6.12.88 (fixed in 6.12.88); from 6.13, before 6.18.30 (fixed in 6.18.30); from 6.19, before 7.0.7 (fixed in 7.0.7)

Published 2026-05-28. Last modified 2026-06-19.