CVE-2026-64424
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
netpoll: fix a use-after-free on shutdown path
There is a use-after-free error on netpoll, which is clearly detected by
KASAN.
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x3b/0x80
Read of size 1 at addr ... by task kworker/9:1
Workqueue: events queue_process
Call Trace:
skb_dequeue+0x1e/0xb0
queue_process+0x2c/0x600
process_scheduled_works+0x4b6/0x850
worker_thread+0x414/0x5a0
Allocated by task 242:
__netpoll_setup+0x201/0x4a0
netpoll_setup+0x249/0x550
enabled_store+0x32f/0x380
Freed by task 0:
kfree+0x1b7/0x540
rcu_core+0x3f8/0x7a0
The problem happens when there is a pending TX worker running in
parallel with the cleanup path.
This is what happens on netpoll shutdown path:
1) __netpoll_cleanup() is called
2) set dev->npinfo to NULL
3) call_rcu() with rcu_cleanup_netpoll_info()
3.1) rcu_cleanup_netpoll_info() tries to cancel all workers with
cancel_delayed_work(), but doesn't wait for the worker to finish
4) and kfree(npinfo);
Because 3.1) doesn't really cancel the work, as the comment says "we
can't call cancel_delayed_work_sync here, as we are in softirq", the TX
worker can run after 4).
Tl;DR: queue_process() is not an RCU reader, it reaches npinfo through
the work item via container_of().
Use disable_delayed_work_sync() to ensure the worker is completely
stopped and prevent any future re-arming attempts. Once npinfo is set
to NULL, senders will bail out and not queue new work. The disable flag
ensures any in-flight re-arming attempts also fail silently.
In the future, we can do the cleanup inline here without needing the
npinfo->rcu rcu_head, but that is net-next material.
Metadata
Severity & Metrics
No CVSS data available.
Affected products (2)
| Vendor | Product | Platform | Versions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | — | 38e6bc185d9544dfad1774b3f8902a0b061aea25 < 95ecc5b58042f6b6743b589e6588f1cd7ba336aa, 38e6bc185d9544dfad1774b3f8902a0b061aea25 < a33f37f8d079da7236ed7b7e2aed2a34ab81e7cf, 38e6bc185d9544dfad1774b3f8902a0b061aea25 < 5ed09a108d93a3b002cc79823d9455b50c4a8be7, 38e6bc185d9544dfad1774b3f8902a0b061aea25 < 45f1458a85017a023f138b22ac5c76abd477db42 |
| Linux | Linux | — | 3.6, 0 < 3.6, 6.12.96 ≤ 6.12.*, 6.18.39 ≤ 6.18.* … |
References (4)