CVE-2026-43167 PUBLISHED

xfrm: always flush state and policy upon NETDEV_UNREGISTER event

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 01.05.2026 Published: 06.05.2026 Updated: 06.05.2026

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

xfrm: always flush state and policy upon NETDEV_UNREGISTER event

syzbot is reporting that "struct xfrm_state" refcount is leaking.

unregister_netdevice: waiting for netdevsim0 to become free. Usage count = 2 ref_tracker: netdev@ffff888052f24618 has 1/1 users at __netdev_tracker_alloc include/linux/netdevice.h:4400 [inline] netdev_tracker_alloc include/linux/netdevice.h:4412 [inline] xfrm_dev_state_add+0x3a5/0x1080 net/xfrm/xfrm_device.c:316 xfrm_state_construct net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c:986 [inline] xfrm_add_sa+0x34ff/0x5fa0 net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c:1022 xfrm_user_rcv_msg+0x58e/0xc00 net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c:3507 netlink_rcv_skb+0x158/0x420 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2550 xfrm_netlink_rcv+0x71/0x90 net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c:3529 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1318 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x5aa/0x870 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1344 netlink_sendmsg+0x8c8/0xdd0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1894 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:727 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:742 [inline] _syssendmsg+0xa5d/0xc30 net/socket.c:2592 _sys_sendmsg+0x134/0x1d0 net/socket.c:2646 __sys_sendmsg+0x16d/0x220 net/socket.c:2678 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xcd/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

This is because commit d77e38e612a0 ("xfrm: Add an IPsec hardware offloading API") implemented xfrm_dev_unregister() as no-op despite xfrm_dev_state_add() from xfrm_state_construct() acquires a reference to "struct net_device". I guess that that commit expected that NETDEV_DOWN event is fired before NETDEV_UNREGISTER event fires, and also assumed that xfrm_dev_state_add() is called only if (dev->features & NETIF_F_HW_ESP) != 0.

Sabrina Dubroca identified steps to reproduce the same symptoms as below.

echo 0 > /sys/bus/netdevsim/new_device dev=$(ls -1 /sys/bus/netdevsim/devices/netdevsim0/net/) ip xfrm state add src 192.168.13.1 dst 192.168.13.2 proto esp \ spi 0x1000 mode tunnel aead 'rfc4106(gcm(aes))' $key 128 \ offload crypto dev $dev dir out ethtool -K $dev esp-hw-offload off echo 0 > /sys/bus/netdevsim/del_device

Like these steps indicate, the NETIF_F_HW_ESP bit can be cleared after xfrm_dev_state_add() acquired a reference to "struct net_device". Also, xfrm_dev_state_add() does not check for the NETIF_F_HW_ESP bit when acquiring a reference to "struct net_device".

Commit 03891f820c21 ("xfrm: handle NETDEV_UNREGISTER for xfrm device") re-introduced the NETDEV_UNREGISTER event to xfrm_dev_event(), but that commit for unknown reason chose to share xfrm_dev_down() between the NETDEV_DOWN event and the NETDEV_UNREGISTER event. I guess that that commit missed the behavior in the previous paragraph.

Therefore, we need to re-introduce xfrm_dev_unregister() in order to release the reference to "struct net_device" by unconditionally flushing state and policy.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from d77e38e612a017480157fe6d2c1422f42cb5b7e3 to 166801e49a5b5fc127b8c9e2f110f303cfddfbc3 (excl.)
  • affected from d77e38e612a017480157fe6d2c1422f42cb5b7e3 to a3c8fede034fa27892f87c863cbd5493167d17ed (excl.)
  • affected from d77e38e612a017480157fe6d2c1422f42cb5b7e3 to 59581778792cbaf8ad788f4a21dc663ce986050e (excl.)
  • affected from d77e38e612a017480157fe6d2c1422f42cb5b7e3 to 8c75c455ecd3bfd2f36abf66edb7021c4fa19ec4 (excl.)
  • affected from d77e38e612a017480157fe6d2c1422f42cb5b7e3 to 4efa91a28576054aae0e6dad9cba8fed8293aef8 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 4.12 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 4.12 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.128 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.75 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.16 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.6 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0 to * (incl.)

References