CVE-2026-98655

About vulnerability

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

perf: Require kernel access for text poke events

Perf events with exclude_kernel=1 can be opened without kernel perf access. However, exclude_kernel does not suppress text-poke sideband records. Every PERF_RECORD_TEXT_POKE is marked PERF_RECORD_MISC_KERNEL and contains a raw kernel instruction address.

An unprivileged task can therefore open and mmap a task-local software event with text_poke=1. Both opening a count-only tracepoint event and configuring UDP GRO for ESP-in-UDP cause updates to inline static calls; the observer receives the relocated addresses of the modified instructions. For a known kernel image, any such address reveals the runtime kernel text base despite KASLR.

Call perf_allow_kernel() whenever attr.text_poke is set, regardless of exclude_kernel. Events that neither monitor kernel execution nor request text-poke records retain their existing permissions.

Affected product:

AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , Amazon Linux 2 ELS , Debian 11 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , TuxCare 9.8 ESU

Affected packages:

linux @ 5.10.259 (+4 more)

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.