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CVE-2026-23450

Critical · CVSS 9.8

Linux Kernel — Use-After-Free (UAF) and NULL pointer dereference in SMC TCP SYN receive path

CVSS
9.8
nvd
EPSS
KEV
No
Class
oss containerizable
CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/smc: fix NULL dereference and UAF in smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() Syzkaller reported a panic in smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() [1]. smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() is called in the TCP receive path (softirq) via icsk_af_ops->syn_recv_sock on the clcsock (TCP listening socket). It reads sk_user_data to get the smc_sock pointer. However, when the SMC listen socket is being closed concurrently, smc_close_active() sets clcsock->sk_user_data to NULL under sk_callback_lock, and then the smc_sock itself can be freed via sock_put() in smc_release(). This leads to two issues: 1) NULL pointer dereference: sk_user_data is NULL when accessed. 2) Use-after-free: sk_user_data is read as non-NULL, but the smc_sock is freed before its fields (e.g., queued_smc_hs, ori_af_ops) are accessed. The race window looks like this (the syzkaller crash [1] triggers via the SYN cookie path: tcp_get_cookie_sock() -> smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock(), but the normal tcp_check_req() path has the same race): CPU A (softirq) CPU B (process ctx) tcp_v4_rcv() TCP_NEW_SYN_RECV: sk = req->rsk_listener sock_hold(sk) /* No lock on listener */ smc_close_active(): write_lock_bh(cb_lock) sk_user_data = NULL write_unlock_bh(cb_lock) ... smc_clcsock_release() sock_put(smc->sk) x2 -> smc_sock freed! tcp_check_req() smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock(): smc = user_data(sk) -> NULL or dangling smc->queued_smc_hs -> crash! Note that the clcsock and smc_sock are two independent objects with separate refcounts. TCP stack holds a reference on the clcsock, which keeps it alive, but this does NOT prevent the smc_sock from being freed. Fix this by using RCU and refcount_inc_not_zero() to safely access smc_sock. Since smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() is called in the TCP three-way handshake path, taking read_lock_bh on sk_callback_lock is too heavy and would not survive a SYN flood attack. Using rcu_read_lock() is much more lightweight. - Set SOCK_RCU_FREE on the SMC listen socket so that smc_sock freeing is deferred until after the RCU grace period. This guarantees the memory is still valid when accessed inside rcu_read_lock(). - Use rcu_read_lock() to protect reading sk_user_data. - Use refcount_inc_not_zero(&smc->sk.sk_refcnt) to pin the smc_sock. If the refcount has already reached zero (close path completed), it returns false and we bail out safely. Note: smc_hs_congested() has a similar lockless read of sk_user_data without rcu_read_lock(), but it only checks for NULL and accesses the global smc_hs_wq, never dereferencing any smc_sock field, so it is not affected. Reproducer was verified with mdelay injection and smc_run, the issue no longer occurs with this patch applied. [1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=827ae2bfb3a3529333e9

Search profile — drives PoC discovery

Symbols smc_tcp_syn_recv_socksmc_close_activesk_user_datask_callback_locksmc_clcsock_releasesmc_sockicsk_af_opssyn_recv_socktcp_get_cookie_socktcp_check_reqqueued_smc_hsori_af_opsSOCK_RCU_FREErefcount_inc_not_zerosk_refcntsmc_hs_congestedsmc_hs_wqrcu_read_lockwrite_lock_bhsock_put
Keywords CVE-2026-23450Linux kernel SMC UAFsmc_tcp_syn_recv_sock NULL dereferencenet/smc use-after-freesmc_sock sk_user_data raceSMC TCP SYN recv sock fixLinux kernel CWE-416 SMCsmc_close_active race conditionsyzkaller smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock panicrcu_read_lock smc_sock refcount fix
Versions: Linux Kernel (multiple stable branches; fixed in commits: 1e4f873879e0, 1fab5ece76fb, 6d5e4538364b, cadf3da46c15, f00fc26c8a06)

Affected packages

Linux Kernel 0 → 5.15.203
Linux Kernel 5.16.0 → 6.1.167
Linux Kernel 5.18.0 → 6.6.130
Linux Kernel 6.13.0 → 6.19.10
Linux Kernel 6.2.0 → 6.12.78
Linux Kernel 6.7.0 → 6.18.20

References

Status: enriched · ingested 2026-07-14T18:00:20.000Z · profiled 2026-07-14T18:30:20.000Z