In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tracing: Fix union collision of module and refcnt for dynamic events

In 'struct trace_event_call', the 'module' pointer and the 'refcnt'
atomic variable share the same memory space in a union. For dynamic
events, the union member is 'refcnt', which acts as an active
reference counter.

When a dynamic event (such as kprobe, uprobe, fprobe, eprobe, or
wprobe) has a non-zero reference count (e.g. due to active event
triggers or perf attachments), its 'call->module' evaluates to a
small non-zero integer instead of NULL.

When filtering or setting events for a specific module (e.g., writing
':mod:<module>' to 'set_event'), the code in
'__ftrace_set_clr_event_nolock()' and 'update_event_fields()' reads
'call->module' directly without checking whether the event is dynamic.
This causes the kernel to treat the small integer (refcnt) as a
'struct module' pointer, leading to a NULL/invalid pointer dereference
(Oops) when dereferencing the module name.

Fix this by ensuring that the 'TRACE_EVENT_FL_DYNAMIC' flag is checked
before treating 'call->module' as a valid pointer in these code paths.

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Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Fix union collision of module and refcnt for dynamic events In 'struct trace_event_call', the 'module' pointer and the 'refcnt' atomic variable share the same memory space in a union. For dynamic events, the union member is 'refcnt', which acts as an active reference counter. When a dynamic event (such as kprobe, uprobe, fprobe, eprobe, or wprobe) has a non-zero reference count (e.g. due to active event triggers or perf attachments), its 'call->module' evaluates to a small non-zero integer instead of NULL. When filtering or setting events for a specific module (e.g., writing ':mod:<module>' to 'set_event'), the code in '__ftrace_set_clr_event_nolock()' and 'update_event_fields()' reads 'call->module' directly without checking whether the event is dynamic. This causes the kernel to treat the small integer (refcnt) as a 'struct module' pointer, leading to a NULL/invalid pointer dereference (Oops) when dereferencing the module name. Fix this by ensuring that the 'TRACE_EVENT_FL_DYNAMIC' flag is checked before treating 'call->module' as a valid pointer in these code paths.
Title tracing: Fix union collision of module and refcnt for dynamic events
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-10T11:59:44.417Z

Reserved: 2026-07-30T09:28:09.372Z

Link: CVE-2026-68174

cve-icon Vulnrichment

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