data built 2026-10-19T13:16:53Z

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CVE-2026-72331

accel/amdxdna: Fix VMA access race

7.8 EPSS 0.2% AV:L

Published 2026-08-15 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem drivers/accel. Debian urgency: unimportant.

What to do, per Debian release

Debian's own status for CVE-2026-72331 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source

ReleaseStatus VersionWhat this means
Debian 12bookwormnot affected6.1.190-1Nothing to do. bookworm never shipped the vulnerable code.
Debian 13trixienot affected6.12.113-1Nothing to do. trixie never shipped the vulnerable code.
Debian 14forkyfixed7.1.5-1Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.5-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts.
Debian unstablesidfixed7.1.5-1Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.5-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts.

The vulnerability

What the bug is

aie2_populate_range() and amdxdna_umap_release() access a saved VMA pointer that may have already been freed, leading to a potential use-after-free. Remove the VMA accesses from these functions to avoid the race.

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.

drivers/accel/amdxdna/aie2_ctx.c
drivers/accel/amdxdna/amdxdna_gem.c
drivers/accel/amdxdna/amdxdna_gem.h

What this is
AMD XDNA DRIVERMAINTAINERS section matched on drivers/accel/amdxdna/ · dri-devel@lists.freedesktop.org · Supported
Kernel module
amdxdna

Check it on the machine

grep -wE 'CONFIG_DRM_ACCEL|CONFIG_DRM_ACCEL_AMDXDNA' /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.

lsmod | grep -w amdxdna

Prints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.

Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Debian builds this, but not on every flavour. At least one release below builds the code on some of its kernel flavours and not on others, so the answer depends on the architecture and flavour installed. The build rule could not be established for 2 releases, so nothing is claimed about those.

  • bookworm, trixie?
  • forky, sidMnot built on amd64/cloud-amd64, arm64/arm64, arm64/arm64-16k, arm64/cloud-arm64, arm64/rt-arm64, armhf/armmp, armhf/armmp-lpae, loong64/loong64, ppc64el/powerpc64le, ppc64el/powerpc64le-64k, riscv64/riscv64, s390x/s390x
?
not established - no Makefile entry for the affected file
M
a module where it is built at all; some flavours do not build it

Where a release above reads "not established", no build rule for the affected file was found in that release's kernel tree. That is a gap in this lookup, not a finding that the code is absent.

Build switches
CONFIG_DRM_ACCEL, CONFIG_DRM_ACCEL_AMDXDNA
Reads as
all on means the file is compiled; any one off means it is not.

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
7.8 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it
Attack vector
local (AV:L)source
EPSS
0.17%, higher than 5.8% of all CVEssource
CISA KEV
not listedthe KEV catalogue
Debian urgency
unimportantsource
Subsystem
drivers/accel

Upstream fixes

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

IntroducedFixed inCommit
6.166.18.573dd12422653a
6.167.1.5bea20225c67f
6.167.21ba02717e821

Why the CNA scored it this way

Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source

AV:LAttack vector, local
The bug is reached only via local syscalls on the AMD XDNA DRM accel render node (open, DRM_IOCTL_AMDXDNA_CREATE_BO/EXEC_CMD, mmap/munmap) in drivers/accel/amdxdna; there is no network-facing handler.
AC:LAttack complexity, low
The UAF is a mmap/munmap versus deferred amdxdna_umap_release/aie2_populate_range race; a local attacker controls both sides with concurrent threads and can reliably trigger MMU_NOTIFY_UNMAP while work still holds a stale vma pointer.
PR:LPrivileges required, low
All vulnerable ioctls use DRM_AUTH (flag 0) and only DRM_ROOT_ONLY SET_STATE is excluded; exploitation needs local access to the render node, which unprivileged users typically have via the render group, not real root.
UI:NUser interaction, none
No victim interaction is required; the attacker opens the device, imports/maps buffers, and races munmap or command submission in their own process to hit the freed VMA.
S:UScope, unchanged
Impact is kernel heap corruption and privilege escalation within the host kernel via a local DRM client; it does not cross a VM, container, or IOMMU security boundary.
C:HConfidentiality impact, high
Use-after-free of a freed vm_area_struct and vm_file in amdxdna_umap_release (and stale vma reads in aie2_populate_range) can expose adjacent kernel memory and be weaponized for arbitrary kernel read primitives.
I:HIntegrity impact, high
UAF on vma/vm_file during mapping_clear_unevictable enables corrupting kernel objects and control data, supporting heap grooming and arbitrary kernel write or code execution for local privilege escalation.
A:HAvailability impact, high
Dereferencing a freed VMA in kernel context can cause oops/panic or wedged NPU workloads; UAF in this path is independently sufficient for complete local denial of service even if exploitation fails.