CVE-2026-72176

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's mm/damon/sysfs-schemes component, which could lead to a denial of service or system instability. This vulnerability is caused by an incorrect error handling path in the damon_sysfs_scheme_add_dirs() function, resulting in a resource leak and the dereference of uninitialized memory.

DAMON sysfs scheme setup has a faulty error path after stats setup succeeds and tried_regions setup fails. The old path puts scheme tried_regions instead of scheme stats, which leaks the stats kobject and can dereference scheme tried_regions when it is NULL, uninitialized, or already released by the failing setup helper. This can crash the kernel and may also indicate unsafe kobject lifetime handling in a rare allocation or setup failure path. For the CVSS the PR:L is used for the paranoid score because delegated DAMON sysfs control or service contexts may allow a non full administrator process to reach the configuration path. The issue is not network reachable and requires local control plane interaction with DAMON sysfs plus an uncommon setup failure condition. Impact is at least local denial of service via kernel crash and in worst case may allow limited confidentiality or integrity impact due to invalid kobject lifetime handling and should be reviewed manually.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.