The vulnerability is a race condition between reads and writes to the 'memcg_path' and 'path' files exposed by the DAMON sysfs interface. When a user writes to these files, the kernel deallocates the buffer that holds the path while another user may simultaneously read the freed memory, resulting in a use‑after‑free error. The flaw can corrupt kernel memory and potentially destabilize the system, but it does not provide a direct code‑execution path under normal use.

Affected releases include Linux kernel versions 6.16 and its sub‑release candidates rc4 through rc7, as well as Linux kernel 7.1rc1. Any kernel build that lacks the damon_sysfs_lock fix is considered vulnerable until updated.

The CVSS score of 7.8 reflects high severity, while the EPSS score of under 1% suggests a low likelihood of current exploitation. The vulnerability is not listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Based on the description, an attacker must have local access with the ability to read and write /sys/kernel/damon/memcg_path, typically requiring elevated privileges or user rights that can modify sysfs entries. The race condition can be triggered when the read and write are performed via separate open file descriptors, a common usage pattern for sysfs files. If successfully abused, the use‑after‑free can lead to kernel memory corruption, which may cause system crashes or subtle integrity violations.