Copyright © 2012 Red Hat, Inc. All rights reserved. Important 2026-06-24T00:00:00 kernel: futex: Drop CLONE_THREAD requirement for private default hash alloc 7.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H CWE-825

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: futex: Drop CLONE_THREAD requirement for private default hash alloc Currently need_futex_hash_allocate_default() depends on strict pthread semantics, abusing CLONE_THREAD. This breaks the non-concurrency assumptions when doing the mm->futex_ref pcpu allocations, leading to bugs[0] when sharing the mm in other ways; ie: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in futex_hash_put ... where the +1 bias can end up on a percpu counter that mm->futex_ref no longer points at. Loosen the check to cover any CLONE_VM clone, except vfork(). Excluding vfork keeps the existing paths untouched (no overhead), and we can't race in the first place: either the parent is suspended and the child runs alone, or mm->futex_ref is already allocated from an earlier CLONE_VM.

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's futex subsystem. The need_futex_hash_allocate_default() function incorrectly relies on CLONE_THREAD semantics, which can lead to non-concurrency issues when memory allocations (mm->futex_ref pcpu allocations) are shared across CLONE_VM clones, excluding vfork(). This can result in a use-after-free vulnerability in futex_hash_put, a form of memory corruption. Such vulnerabilities can potentially lead to system instability or other security impacts.

This vulnerability was introduced in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.8 and 10.2; therefore, earlier versions of RHEL are unaffected. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Not affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Not affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Not affected kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Not affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Not affected kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Affected kernel-rt https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-52973 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-52973 https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026062439-CVE-2026-52973-af9c@gregkh/T