CVE-2026-72178

What the bug is

damon_commit_target() puts and gets the destination and the source target pids. It puts the destination target pid because it will be overwritten by the source target pid. It gets the source pid because the caller is supposed to eventually put the pids. In more detail, the caller will call damon_destroy_ctx() after damon_commit_ctx() to destroy the entire source context. And in this case, [f]vaddr operation set's cleanup_target() callback will put the pids. The commit operation is made at the context level. The operation can fail in multiple places including in the middle and after the targets commit operations. For any such failures, immediately the error is returned to the damon_commit_ctx() caller. If some or all of the source target pids were committed to the destination during the unsuccessful context commit attempt, those pids should be put twice. The source context will do the put operations using the above explained routine. However, let's suppose the destination context was not originally using [f]vaddr operation set and the commit failed before the ops of the source context is committed. The destination does not have the cleanup_target() ops callback, so it cannot put the pids via the damon_destroy_ctx(). As a result, the pids are leaked. The issue in the real world would be not very common. The commit feature is for changing parameters of running DAMON context while inheriting internal status like the monitoring results. The monitoring results of a physical address range ain't have things that are beneficial to be inherited to a virtual address ranges monitoring. So the problem-causing DAMON control would be not very common in the real world. That said, it is a supported feature. And damon_commit_target() failure due to memory allocation is relatively realistic [1] if there are a huge number of target regions. Fix by putting the pids in the commit operation in case of the failures. The issue was discovered [2] by Sashiko.

Where it lives

The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.

mm/damon/core.c

What this is

DAMONMAINTAINERS section matched on mm/damon/ · damon@lists.linux.dev · Maintained

Check it on the machine

grep -w CONFIG_DAMON /boot/config-$(uname -r)

Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.

Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Debian does not build this code in 1 release. It does build it in 3 releases, so the answer depends on which release the machine runs.

• bookwormn
• trixie, forky, sidy

n

not enabled on any flavour - this release does not build the code

y

built into the kernel image on every flavour - only a patch removes it

Build switch

CONFIG_DAMON

From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages

Signals

Published

2026-08-15 (2 months ago)source

CVSS

no vector published, unrated

Attack vector

not published

EPSS

0.21%, higher than 10.3% of all CVEssource

CISA KEV

not listedthe KEV catalogue

Debian urgency

unimportantsource

Subsystem

mm/damon

Upstream fixes

The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source

Introduced	Fixed in	Commit
6.11	6.12.97	ea07e045611c
6.11	6.18.40	3b91c35961fa
6.11	7.1.5	837f619f1d98
6.11	7.2	6a66c557a2ab