CVE-2026-68357

watchdog: pretimeout: Fix UAF in watchdog_unregister_governor()

State: Published
Severity: Not scored
Published: Aug 10, 2026
Updated: Aug 19, 2026
Reserved: Jul 30, 2026

Description

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

watchdog: pretimeout: Fix UAF in watchdog_unregister_governor()

When a watchdog governor is unregistered, it updates existing watchdog devices that were using this governor by falling back to `default_gov`.

If the governor being unregistered is currently set as `default_gov`, the `default_gov` is never cleared. This leads to 2 use-after-free issues: 1. New watchdog devices registered after this point will inherit the dangling `default_gov`. 2. Existing watchdog devices using the unregistered governor will have their `wdd->gov` reassigned to the dangling `default_gov`.

Fix the UAF by clearing `default_gov` if it matches the governor being unregistered.

Scores

The record has no CVSS score.

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

Product	Versions
LinuxLinux	da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before b9ae33faa96bdec6bc60e4c5f8f53786182e4207Affected da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 472ec1e34ff0bb26379805cae808f658cce58c35Affected da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 7a2ee3ec6f208307eca1119a343c7b5d39c03708Affected da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 2e47b91b9b4020fcc01def14d6b6556d66074cf4Affected da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 0ca252720f0e38411cfec3431db9bb1aed0a412cAffected da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 7d1658b066de30f4b23afc14814d22416a971e6eAffected da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 7993d626983cc58fbde9607333cfd2d57725c197Affected da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 7362ba0f9c96ac3ad6a2ca3995bd9fc9a28a8661Affected
LinuxLinux	4.9Affected before 4.9Not affected 5.10.265 through 5.10.Not affected 5.15.216 through 5.15.Not affected 6.1.183 through 6.1.Not affected 6.6.148 through 6.6.Not affected 6.12.101 through 6.12.Not affected 6.18.42 through 6.18.Not affected 7.1.6 through 7.1.*Not affected 7.2 and laterNot affected

Product

Versions

LinuxLinux

da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before b9ae33faa96bdec6bc60e4c5f8f53786182e4207Affected
da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 472ec1e34ff0bb26379805cae808f658cce58c35Affected
da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 7a2ee3ec6f208307eca1119a343c7b5d39c03708Affected
da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 2e47b91b9b4020fcc01def14d6b6556d66074cf4Affected
da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 0ca252720f0e38411cfec3431db9bb1aed0a412cAffected
da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 7d1658b066de30f4b23afc14814d22416a971e6eAffected
da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 7993d626983cc58fbde9607333cfd2d57725c197Affected
da0d12ff2b829a35e9921918e925d79497b82bef to before 7362ba0f9c96ac3ad6a2ca3995bd9fc9a28a8661Affected

LinuxLinux

4.9Affected
before 4.9Not affected
5.10.265 through 5.10.*Not affected
5.15.216 through 5.15.*Not affected
6.1.183 through 6.1.*Not affected
6.6.148 through 6.6.*Not affected
6.12.101 through 6.12.*Not affected
6.18.42 through 6.18.*Not affected
7.1.6 through 7.1.*Not affected
7.2 and laterNot affected

References

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