CVE-2026-23306: linux Use After Free

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-23306 is a high (CVSS 7.8) Use After Free vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.13% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 25-03-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 05-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: pm8001: Fix use-after-free in pm8001_queue_command() Commit e29c47fe8946 ("scsi: pm8001: Simplify pm8001_task_exec()") refactors pm8001_queue_command(), however it introduces a potential cause of a double free scenario when it changes the function to return -ENODEV in case of phy down/device gone state. In this path, pm8001_queue_command() updates task status and calls task_done to indicate to upper layer that the task has been handled. However, this also frees the underlying SAS task. A -ENODEV is then returned to the caller. When libsas sas_ata_qc_issue() receives this error value, it assumes the task wasn't handled/queued by LLDD and proceeds to clean up and free the task again, resulting in a double free. Since pm8001_queue_command() handles the SAS task in this case, it should return 0 to the caller indicating that the task has been handled.

• CWE-416Use After FreeThe product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.