Vulnerabilities
- CVSS
- 7.8 High
- Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H- EPSS
- 0.13%
- Risk score
- 2.0
- Published
- 2026-08-22
- Status
- Published
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
bpf: tcp: Fix use-after-free in bpf_iter_tcp_established_batch()
reqsk_queue_hash_req() publishes a TCP_NEW_SYN_RECV request_sock onto
the ehash chain, drops the bucket lock, and only afterwards sets
rsk_refcnt to 3.
Lockless readers such as __inet_lookup_established() handle this with
refcount_inc_not_zero(), but bpf_iter_tcp_established_batch() uses plain
sock_hold() while holding the bucket lock, on the assumption that the
lock guarantees sk_refcnt > 0. That assumption does not hold for
request_sock:
CPU 0 CPU 1
----- -----
tcp_conn_request()
reqsk_queue_hash_req()
inet_ehash_insert(req)
spin_lock(bucket)
__sk_nulls_add_node_rcu(req) // rsk_refcnt == 0
spin_unlock(bucket)
bpf_iter_tcp_established_batch()
spin_lock(bucket)
sock_hold(req) <-- addition on 0
spin_unlock(bucket)
refcount_set(&req->rsk_refcnt, 3) // clobbers saturated value
which surfaces as:
refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free.
WARNING: lib/refcount.c:25 at refcount_warn_saturate+0x48/0x90, CPU#1
Call Trace:
bpf_iter_tcp_established_batch+0x14e/0x170
bpf_iter_tcp_batch+0x53/0x200
bpf_iter_tcp_seq_next+0x27/0x70
bpf_seq_read+0x107/0x410
vfs_read+0xb9/0x380
The iterator's stolen reference is lost when the publishing CPU's
refcount_set() overwrites the count, leaving the socket one reference
short. When the last legitimate owner drops its reference the reqsk is
freed while still reachable, leading to use-after-free.
This reproduces in seconds with tcp_syncookies=0, a handful of threads
doing connect()/close() to a local listener while others read an
iter/tcp link in a tight loop.
Use refcount_inc_not_zero() and skip the socket on failure. A skipped
socket is still part of the bucket, so keep counting it in expected.
The reallocations are sized from expected, and a request sock whose
refcount gets published while the lock is held across the last realloc
must already have room.
A skipped socket is counted in expected but never batched, so end_sk
can be short of expected on a batch that is actually complete. Decide
completeness by whether the walk left any socket behind instead. The
WARN after the locked realloc checks the same, replacing an
end_sk == expected check that could not hold on that path since
commit cdec67a489d4 ("bpf: tcp: Make sure iter->batch always
contains a full bucket snapshot").
If every matching socket in a bucket is mid-init (refcount 0), end_sk
stays 0. Advance to the next bucket rather than returning a batch entry
that was never filled this round.
Coverage 1
threat-intel
Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Linux kernel of Debian. These vulnerabilities allow for privilege escalation, data compromise, and denial of service. The affected Debian versions are prior to 6.12.10…
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