Executive brief
A vulnerability was identified in the Linux kernel's Qualcomm CPU frequency driver that could lead to a system crash. The issue stems from how the system manages memory for processor power settings, potentially attempting to release the same memory twice. While primarily a stability concern, such flaws can sometimes be exploited to disrupt system operations.
Technical details
A double free vulnerability exists in drivers/cpufreq/qcom-cpufreq-hw.c within the Linux kernel. The root cause is an incorrect manual kfree() call in qcom_cpufreq_hw_cpu_exit() on memory that is already managed by the devm (device resource management) framework. When the driver attempts to clean up, it may free the devm-allocated array prematurely or attempt to free a pointer that does not point to the start of an allocation. This can be triggered during driver detachment or CPU hotplug events. The vulnerability has been patched by removing the redundant kfree() call, allowing the devres system to handle memory reclamation correctly.
Affected products
- Linux Linux 6.2 to 7.1.4
Timeline
- 2026-07-25: disclosed
- 2026-07-25: advisory