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CVE-2026-89942

7.8 HIGH

Published 2026-09-16 · Updated 2026-09-16

AI risk analysis

Summary
This vulnerability allows an attacker to exploit a use-after-free condition in the Linux kernel's IIO buffer handling, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution or system instability.
Exploitability
Exploitation requires the attacker to have the ability to unbind or hot-unplug the IIO device, making it moderately hard to exploit.
Blast radius
If exploited, the vulnerability could lead to system-wide instability or arbitrary code execution on the affected system.
Detection
No reliable host or network indicator is derivable from the published description.
Prioritized remediation
Upgrade to the fixed version 5.19.71 or later.
kerneluse-after-freeiiobuffer

Analysis generated locally by qwen2.5:7b-instruct (no data left the box). AI-assisted — verify against primary sources before acting.

NVD description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iio: buffer: Fix potential use-after-free in anonymous buffer release An anonymous buffer handle holds a reference to the underlying IIO device. The reference is dropped in the buffer handle's release function. If the device has been removed, either through unbind or hot-unplug, the buffer handle might hold the last reference. The release function takes the mutex for the buffer using a guard, which means the unlock happens after all the code in the function, including `iio_device_put()`. If the anonymous buffer holds the last reference this might free both the IIO device and the buffer, which contains the mutex, leading to use-after-free when the mutex is unlocked. Fix this by using a scoped guard just around the buffer dmabuf list access, making sure the mutex is unlocked before releasing the IIO device. Version 10 of the patch that introduced this issue used this exact scheme of first unlocking and then dropping the reference [1]. During review it was suggested to use a guard instead, and version 11 made that change [2].

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

Data: NVD (public domain). Analysis: local $0 model. Defensive use only.