CVE-2026-68170 PUBLISHED

mptcp: fix stale skb->sk reference on subflow close

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 30.07.2026 Published: 10.08.2026 Updated: 10.08.2026

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

mptcp: fix stale skb->sk reference on subflow close

The backlog list is updated by mptcp_data_ready() under mptcp_data_lock(). The cleanup of backlog references to a closing subflow, however, was performed in mptcp_close_ssk(), before __mptcp_close_ssk() acquires the ssk lock, and while holding neither the ssk lock nor mptcp_data_lock().

Because that traversal ran without mptcp_data_lock(), concurrent softirq RX processing on another CPU (subflow_data_ready() -> mptcp_data_ready() -> __mptcp_add_backlog(), under mptcp_data_lock()) could add a backlog entry referencing the ssk while the cleanup loop was in progress. Such an entry could be missed by the cleanup, or the concurrent list update could corrupt the traversal, leaving skb->sk pointing at the ssk after it is freed.

A later mptcp_backlog_purge() then dereferences the stale pointer, triggering a warning in inet_sock_destruct() (ssk->sk_rmem_alloc != 0) followed by a use-after-free in mptcp_backlog_purge().

Fix this by moving the backlog cleanup into __mptcp_close_ssk(), after subflow->closing is set to 1 and while the ssk lock is still held, serialized under mptcp_data_lock(). The cleanup runs only on the push path (MPTCP_CF_PUSH), where backlog references accumulate; on other teardown paths the caller already handles cleanup.

With subflow->closing set and mptcp_data_lock() held across the purge, any concurrent mptcp_data_ready() either completes its enqueue before the purge runs and is caught, or observes closing=1 and bails out. Once mptcp_data_unlock() is reached, no new skb referencing the ssk can be enqueued, so the cleanup is exhaustive.

Remove the unprotected traversal from mptcp_close_ssk() entirely.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from ee458a3f314e9c669ddd227bf5ab08354d9e75cc to 625fc6060864889fe3d370cdeffbbab762af3cb4 (excl.)
  • affected from ee458a3f314e9c669ddd227bf5ab08354d9e75cc to bd7aae448f6ee9d82599a4474664de1e6e91a535 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.19 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.19 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.6 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2-rc5 to * (incl.)

References