CVE-2026-31508 PUBLISHED

net: openvswitch: Avoid releasing netdev before teardown completes

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 09.03.2026 Published: 22.04.2026 Updated: 22.04.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: openvswitch: Avoid releasing netdev before teardown completes

The patch cited in the Fixes tag below changed the teardown code for OVS ports to no longer unconditionally take the RTNL. After this change, the netdev_destroy() callback can proceed immediately to the call_rcu() invocation if the IFF_OVS_DATAPATH flag is already cleared on the netdev.

The ovs_netdev_detach_dev() function clears the flag before completing the unregistration, and if it gets preempted after clearing the flag (as can happen on an -rt kernel), netdev_destroy() can complete and the device can be freed before the unregistration completes. This leads to a splat like:

[ 998.393867] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xff00000001000239: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI [ 998.393877] CPU: 42 UID: 0 PID: 55177 Comm: ip Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.12.0-211.1.1.el10_2.x86_64+rt #1 PREEMPT_RT [ 998.393886] Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R740/0JMK61, BIOS 2.24.0 03/27/2025 [ 998.393889] RIP: 0010:dev_set_promiscuity+0x8d/0xa0 [ 998.393901] Code: 00 00 75 d8 48 8b 53 08 48 83 ba b0 02 00 00 00 75 ca 48 83 c4 08 5b c3 cc cc cc cc 48 83 bf 48 09 00 00 00 75 91 48 8b 47 08 <48> 83 b8 b0 02 00 00 00 74 97 eb 81 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 90 90 90 [ 998.393906] RSP: 0018:ffffce5864a5f6a0 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 998.393912] RAX: ff00000000ffff89 RBX: ffff894d0adf5a05 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 998.393917] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00000000ffffffff RDI: ffff894d0adf5a05 [ 998.393921] RBP: ffff894d19252000 R08: ffff894d19252000 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 998.393924] R10: ffff894d19252000 R11: ffff894d192521b8 R12: 0000000000000006 [ 998.393927] R13: ffffce5864a5f738 R14: 00000000ffffffe2 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 998.393931] FS: 00007fad61971800(0000) GS:ffff894cc0140000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 998.393936] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 998.393940] CR2: 000055df0a2a6e40 CR3: 000000011c7fe003 CR4: 00000000007726f0 [ 998.393944] PKRU: 55555554 [ 998.393946] Call Trace: [ 998.393949] <TASK> [ 998.393952] ? show_trace_log_lvl+0x1b0/0x2f0 [ 998.393961] ? show_trace_log_lvl+0x1b0/0x2f0 [ 998.393975] ? dp_device_event+0x41/0x80 [openvswitch] [ 998.394009] ? __die_body.cold+0x8/0x12 [ 998.394016] ? die_addr+0x3c/0x60 [ 998.394027] ? exc_general_protection+0x16d/0x390 [ 998.394042] ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x26/0x30 [ 998.394058] ? dev_set_promiscuity+0x8d/0xa0 [ 998.394066] ? ovs_netdev_detach_dev+0x3a/0x80 [openvswitch] [ 998.394092] dp_device_event+0x41/0x80 [openvswitch] [ 998.394102] notifier_call_chain+0x5a/0xd0 [ 998.394106] unregister_netdevice_many_notify+0x51b/0xa60 [ 998.394110] rtnl_dellink+0x169/0x3e0 [ 998.394121] ? rt_mutex_slowlock.constprop.0+0x95/0xd0 [ 998.394125] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x142/0x3f0 [ 998.394128] ? avc_has_perm_noaudit+0x69/0xf0 [ 998.394130] ? __pfx_rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x10/0x10 [ 998.394132] netlink_rcv_skb+0x50/0x100 [ 998.394138] netlink_unicast+0x292/0x3f0 [ 998.394141] netlink_sendmsg+0x21b/0x470 [ 998.394145] _syssendmsg+0x39d/0x3d0 [ 998.394149] _sys_sendmsg+0x9a/0xe0 [ 998.394156] __sys_sendmsg+0x7a/0xd0 [ 998.394160] do_syscall_64+0x7f/0x170 [ 998.394162] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [ 998.394165] RIP: 0033:0x7fad61bf4724 [ 998.394188] Code: 89 02 b8 ff ff ff ff eb bb 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 00 f3 0f 1e fa 80 3d c5 e9 0c 00 00 74 13 b8 2e 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 54 c3 0f 1f 00 48 83 ec 28 89 54 24 1c 48 89 [ 998.394189] RSP: 002b:00007ffd7e2f7cb8 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002e [ 998.394191] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000001 RCX: 00007fad61bf4724 [ 998.394193] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00007ffd7e2f7d20 RDI: 0000000000000003 [ 998.394194] RBP: 00007ffd7e2f7d90 R08: 0000000000000010 R09: 000000000000003f [ 998.394195] R10: 000055df11558010 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 00007ffd7e2 ---truncated---

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from b823c3344d5446b720227ba561df10a4f0add515 to df3c95be76103604e752131d9495a24814915ece (excl.)
  • affected from 052e5db5be4576e0a8ef1460b210da5f328f4cd1 to 33609454be4f582e686a4bf13d4482a5ca0f6c4b (excl.)
  • affected from c98263d5ace597c096a7a60aeef790da7b54979e to 5fdeaf591a0942772c2d18ff3563697a49ad01c6 (excl.)
  • affected from 0fc642f011cb7a7eff41109e66d3b552e9f4d795 to 4c3e25a7b711a402fcbbbcfbbdf2868ece1ae7c8 (excl.)
  • affected from 5116f61ab11846844585c9082c547c4ccd97ff1a to 43579baa17270aa51f93eb09b6e4af6e047b7f6e (excl.)
  • affected from f31557fb1b35332cca9994aa196cef284bcf3807 to 95265232b49765a4d00f4d028c100bb7185600f4 (excl.)
  • affected from 5498227676303e3ffa9a3a46214af96bc3e81314 to 755a6300afbd743cda4b102f24f343380ec0e0ff (excl.)
  • affected from 5498227676303e3ffa9a3a46214af96bc3e81314 to 7c770dadfda5cbbde6aa3c4363ed513f1d212bf8 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.19 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.19 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.253 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.203 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.168 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.131 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.80 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.21 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.11 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0 to * (incl.)

References