CVE-2026-72482: Linux

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: gpib: fix double decrement of descriptor_busy in command_ioctl() commit d1857f8296dc ("gpib: fix use-after-free in IO ioctl handlers") introduced a descriptor_busy reference counter to pin struct gpib_descriptor across IO ioctl operations. In command_ioctl(), the error path inside the loop decrements descriptor_busy and breaks, but execution then falls through to the unconditional decrement after the loop, underflowing the counter to -1. This re-enables the use-after-free that the original fix was meant to prevent: a concurrent close_dev_ioctl() sees descriptor_busy == 0 on an actively-used descriptor and frees it. Remove the early decrement from the error path. The post-loop decrement already handles all exit paths, matching the correct pattern used in read_ioctl() and write_ioctl().

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 6.18.22, before 6.18.40 (fixed in 6.18.40); from 6.19.12, before 6.20 (fixed in 6.20); from 7.0, before 7.1.5 (fixed in 7.1.5)

Published 2026-08-15. Last modified 2026-08-17.