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CVE-2026-72455
apparmor: fix uninitialised pointer passed to audit_log_untrustedstring()
Published 2026-08-15 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem security/apparmor. Debian urgency: unimportant.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-72455 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
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | not affected | 6.1.190-1 | Nothing to do. bookworm never shipped the vulnerable code. |
| Debian 13trixie | not affected | 6.12.113-1 | Nothing to do. trixie never shipped the vulnerable code. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.1.5-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.5-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.1.5-1 | Update 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
Commit 4a134723f9f1 ("apparmor: move check for aa_null file to cover all cases") intrdouced a small bug, where path_name() may pass a potentially uninitialized *name to aa_audit_file() if the path->dentry had been replaced with aa_null.dentry earlier on. This can lead to page fault like one observed on 7.0.2 openSUSE Tumbleweed kernel: [51692.242756] [ T24690] BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000f00000003 [51692.242762] [ T24690] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [51692.242763] [ T24690] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [51692.242765] [ T24690] PGD 0 P4D 0 [51692.242768] [ T24690] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [51692.242772] [ T24690] CPU: 3 UID: 1020 PID: 24690 Comm: snap-confine Tainted: G O 7.0.2-1-default #1 PREEMPT(full) openSUSE Tumbleweed ab90b4c9940707f9cafa19bdad80b2cec52dbe51 [51692.242775] [ T24690] Tainted: [O]=OOT_MODULE [51692.242777] [ T24690] Hardware name: Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 7040Series)/FRANMDCP05, BIOS 03.18 01/08/2026 [51692.242778] [ T24690] RIP: 0010:strlen+0x4/0x30 [51692.242783] [ T24690] Code: f7 75 ec 31 c0 e9 17 9f 00 ff 48 89 f8 e9 0f 9f 00 ff 0f 1f 40 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa <80> 3f 00 74 18 48 89 f8 0f 1f 40 00 48 83 c0 01 80 38 00 75 f7 48 [51692.242785] [ T24690] RSP: 0018:ffffd015eb1e3608 EFLAGS: 00010282 [51692.242787] [ T24690] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff89796198a360 RCX: 0000000000000000 [51692.242788] [ T24690] RDX: 00000000000000d1 RSI: 0000000f00000003 RDI: 0000000f00000003 [51692.242790] [ T24690] RBP: ffffffffb7ede090 R08: 00000000000005f5 R09: 0000000000000000 [51692.242791] [ T24690] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffd015eb1e3700 [51692.242792] [ T24690] R13: ffff8977a22bc380 R14: ffffffffb7ec5190 R15: ffff8977a0c8aa80 [51692.242794] [ T24690] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff897f640d8000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [51692.242796] [ T24690] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [51692.242797] [ T24690] CR2: 0000000f00000003 CR3: 00000006ad15f000 CR4: 0000000000f50ef0 [51692.242799] [ T24690] PKRU: 55555554 [51692.242800] [ T24690] Call Trace: [51692.242802] [ T24690] <TASK> [51692.242804] [ T24690] audit_log_untrustedstring+0x1d/0x40 [51692.242811] [ T24690] common_lsm_audit+0x71/0x1d0 [51692.242816] [ T24690] aa_audit+0x5a/0x170 [51692.242819] [ T24690] aa_audit_file+0x18a/0x1b0 [51692.242825] [ T24690] path_name+0xd2/0x100 [51692.242829] [ T24690] profile_path_perm.part.0+0x58/0xb0 [51692.242832] [ T24690] aa_path_perm+0xef/0x150 [51692.242837] [ T24690] apparmor_file_open+0x153/0x2e0 [51692.242840] [ T24690] security_file_open+0x46/0xd0 [51692.242844] [ T24690] do_dentry_open+0xe9/0x4d0 [51692.242848] [ T24690] vfs_open+0x30/0x100 While here, initialise variables which are passed down to path_name().
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.
security/apparmor/file.c
- What this is
- APPARMOR SECURITY MODULEMAINTAINERS section matched on security/apparmor/ · apparmor@lists.ubuntu.com · Supported
Check it on the machine
grep -w CONFIG_SECURITY_APPARMOR /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 builds this code. Every release below compiles the affected file into the kernels it ships.
- bookworm, trixie, forky, sidy
- y
- built into the kernel image on every flavour - only a patch removes it
- Build switch
- CONFIG_SECURITY_APPARMOR
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
- 7.1 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Hsource recompute it - Attack vector
- local (AV:L)source
- EPSS
- 0.16%, higher than 5.3% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- unimportantsource
- Subsystem
- security/apparmor
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 6.18.14 | 6.18.40 | 2791dd42d41e |
| 7.0 | 7.1.5 | a5c79d44ef19 |
| 7.0 | 7.2 | bcd1b34c2174 |
| 6.19.4 | 0 | 0 |
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
- Exploitation requires local syscalls that invoke AppArmor LSM file/path hooks (e.g. open on an inherited fd replaced with aa_null.dentry during exec); there is no network, adjacent-wireless, or physical-device entry point to this audit code path.
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- An unprivileged attacker can reliably trigger the bug by execing into a confined AppArmor profile with disallowed inherited fds (aa_inherit_files replaces them with aa_null) and then opening or linking those paths; this was reproduced in production by snap-confine without rare timing or layout dependencies.
- PR:LPrivileges required, low
- The observed crash was from snap-confine running as UID 1020 under AppArmor confinement; triggering the aa_null inheritance-and-reopen sequence requires only a normal unprivileged local account on an AppArmor-enabled system, not real init-namespace root or special capabilities.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- No victim interaction is required beyond the attacker performing their own exec and subsequent file operations to hit the vulnerable audit path on aa_null-replaced file descriptors.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- Impact is a kernel oops/panic from the LSM audit path within the same kernel security domain; it is not a cross-boundary escape such as KVM guest-to-host or IOMMU bypass.
- C:HConfidentiality impact, high
- The uninitialized name pointer is passed to audit_log_untrustedstring(), which calls strlen() and performs an uncontrolled kernel memory read; if the stack value were valid, leaked bytes could be written to the audit log, and even the faulting read is an out-of-bounds-style disclosure primitive.
- I:NIntegrity impact, none
- The flaw is an uninitialized-pointer read in strlen during audit formatting; it does not corrupt or modify kernel or user data, and observed impact is a crash rather than an arbitrary write or code-execution primitive.
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- Triggering the uninitialized pointer in audit_log_untrustedstring() causes a supervisor page fault and kernel oops, as demonstrated on openSUSE Tumbleweed 7.0.2, denying service to the local system and potentially all users on the host.