CVE-2025-38464

Published Jul 25, 2025

Last updated 3 months ago

Overview

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tipc: Fix use-after-free in tipc_conn_close(). syzbot reported a null-ptr-deref in tipc_conn_close() during netns dismantle. [0] tipc_topsrv_stop() iterates tipc_net(net)->topsrv->conn_idr and calls tipc_conn_close() for each tipc_conn. The problem is that tipc_conn_close() is called after releasing the IDR lock. At the same time, there might be tipc_conn_recv_work() running and it could call tipc_conn_close() for the same tipc_conn and release its last ->kref. Once we release the IDR lock in tipc_topsrv_stop(), there is no guarantee that the tipc_conn is alive. Let's hold the ref before releasing the lock and put the ref after tipc_conn_close() in tipc_topsrv_stop(). [0]: BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in tipc_conn_close+0x122/0x140 net/tipc/topsrv.c:165 Read of size 8 at addr ffff888099305a08 by task kworker/u4:3/435 CPU: 0 PID: 435 Comm: kworker/u4:3 Not tainted 4.19.204-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011 Workqueue: netns cleanup_net Call Trace: __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:77 [inline] dump_stack+0x1fc/0x2ef lib/dump_stack.c:118 print_address_description.cold+0x54/0x219 mm/kasan/report.c:256 kasan_report_error.cold+0x8a/0x1b9 mm/kasan/report.c:354 kasan_report mm/kasan/report.c:412 [inline] __asan_report_load8_noabort+0x88/0x90 mm/kasan/report.c:433 tipc_conn_close+0x122/0x140 net/tipc/topsrv.c:165 tipc_topsrv_stop net/tipc/topsrv.c:701 [inline] tipc_topsrv_exit_net+0x27b/0x5c0 net/tipc/topsrv.c:722 ops_exit_list+0xa5/0x150 net/core/net_namespace.c:153 cleanup_net+0x3b4/0x8b0 net/core/net_namespace.c:553 process_one_work+0x864/0x1570 kernel/workqueue.c:2153 worker_thread+0x64c/0x1130 kernel/workqueue.c:2296 kthread+0x33f/0x460 kernel/kthread.c:259 ret_from_fork+0x24/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:415 Allocated by task 23: kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x12f/0x380 mm/slab.c:3625 kmalloc include/linux/slab.h:515 [inline] kzalloc include/linux/slab.h:709 [inline] tipc_conn_alloc+0x43/0x4f0 net/tipc/topsrv.c:192 tipc_topsrv_accept+0x1b5/0x280 net/tipc/topsrv.c:470 process_one_work+0x864/0x1570 kernel/workqueue.c:2153 worker_thread+0x64c/0x1130 kernel/workqueue.c:2296 kthread+0x33f/0x460 kernel/kthread.c:259 ret_from_fork+0x24/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:415 Freed by task 23: __cache_free mm/slab.c:3503 [inline] kfree+0xcc/0x210 mm/slab.c:3822 tipc_conn_kref_release net/tipc/topsrv.c:150 [inline] kref_put include/linux/kref.h:70 [inline] conn_put+0x2cd/0x3a0 net/tipc/topsrv.c:155 process_one_work+0x864/0x1570 kernel/workqueue.c:2153 worker_thread+0x64c/0x1130 kernel/workqueue.c:2296 kthread+0x33f/0x460 kernel/kthread.c:259 ret_from_fork+0x24/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:415 The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff888099305a00 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-512 of size 512 The buggy address is located 8 bytes inside of 512-byte region [ffff888099305a00, ffff888099305c00) The buggy address belongs to the page: page:ffffea000264c140 count:1 mapcount:0 mapping:ffff88813bff0940 index:0x0 flags: 0xfff00000000100(slab) raw: 00fff00000000100 ffffea00028b6b88 ffffea0002cd2b08 ffff88813bff0940 raw: 0000000000000000 ffff888099305000 0000000100000006 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: ffff888099305900: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff888099305980: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc >ffff888099305a00: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ^ ffff888099305a80: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff888099305b00: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD status
Modified
Products
linux_kernel, debian_linux

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
7.8
Impact score
5.9
Exploitability score
1.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Severity
HIGH

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-416

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Configurations

  1. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup: Avoid iteration of dying tasks with zero refcount The commit 260fbcb92bbea ("cgroup: Move dying_tasks cleanup from cgroup_task_release() to cgroup_task_free()") extended the lifetime of tasks on the dying_tasks list. The iterators have provision to go through dying_tasks because of dying threadgroup leaders or explicit CSS_TASK_ITER_WITH_DEAD, however, it was expected that such tasks can obtain a new reference (that is possible before cgroup_task_release()/put_task_struct_rcu_user()). The tasks after cgroup_task_release() and before cgroup_task_free() are subject to race when they may or may not have ->usage count > 0. The race window is between css_task_iter_next() invocations when css_set_lock is released and we may arrive at a new ->task_pos. The iterator should not attempt to resurrect tasks whose ->usage count dropped to zero. (When that happens, __put_task_struct_rcu_cb() is already imminent and the returned task_struct would could be used after free.) As for the fix, we cannot simply check the signal->live count of a task on the dying list because that won't distinguish regular zombies waiting to be reaped from RCU remnant tasks that are going to be free'd. Therefore add an extra check to rule out ->usage==0 tasks from any iteration. The repeat: loop in css_task_iter_advance() doesn't consider ->usage count, so add a new loop to css_task_iter_next() to skip de-used tasks on the dying_list. Rough illustration of the possible race R (reader of cgroup.procs) T (thread) L (group leader) --------------------------------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- L exits, signal->live > 0 cgroup_task_dead(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // skips only cset->tasks list_add_tail(&L->cg_list, &cset->dying_tasks) css_task_iter_next() take css_set_lock css_task_iter_advance() leader && signal->live != 0 => it->task_pos = &L->cg_list release css_set_lock T exits --signal->live == 0 cgroup_task_dead(T) // css_set_lock release_task(T) cgroup_task_release(T) release_task(L) // zap_leader cgroup_task_release(L) put_task_struct_rcu_user(L) ...RCU... put_task_struct(L) L->usage = 0 /* L still on dying_tasks */ ...RCU... __put_task_struct(L) css_task_iter_next() // another iteration take css_set_lock it->task_pos = &L->cg_list get_task_struct(L) => addition on 0 drop css_set_lock cgroup_task_free(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // dying skip comes too late free_task(L) cgroup_procs_show() task_pid_vnr(L)β€’CVE-2026-98163