CVE-2026-72220 PUBLISHED

sunrpc: harden rq_procinfo lifecycle to prevent double-free

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 09.08.2026 Published: 15.08.2026 Updated: 17.08.2026

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

sunrpc: harden rq_procinfo lifecycle to prevent double-free

The svc_release_rqst() function executes the callback inside rqstp->rq_procinfo->pc_release. However, if a worker thread begins processing a new request and encounters an early error path (e.g., unsupported protocol, short frame, or bad auth) before a valid rq_procinfo is installed, a stale release hook can be re-triggered against reused state from the previous RPC, resulting in a double-free or use-after-free vulnerability.

Harden the lifecycle of rq_procinfo by: 1. Ensuring svc_release_rqst() always clears rq_procinfo after the optional pc_release() call, regardless of whether the hook exists. 2. Explicitly clearing rq_procinfo at request entry in svc_process() before any early decode or drop paths. 3. Ensuring svc_process_bc() does the same at backchannel entry.

This guarantees that error flows will not encounter a non-NULL stale rq_procinfo pointer when there is nothing to release.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS Score: 9.8

AV:N - The flaw is in server-side SUNRPC request handling reached from remote RPC over TCP/UDP/RDMA transports used by nfsd and lockd (svc_recv→svc_handle_xprt→svc_process), exploitable by sending crafted ONC/RPC packets to listening NFS/NLM ports. AC:L - An attacker controls the RPC sequence and timing (valid request then malformed/short/bad-auth/bad-prog packet on the same pooled worker) to reliably re-trigger a stale pc_release without depending on uncontrollable layout or victim state. PR:N - Trigger paths include pre-authentication failures (garbage credentials, unknown program/version, short frames) that still call svc_release_rqst; stale rq_procinfo can be left by any prior RPC on the same worker, so no attacker credentials are required. UI:N - Exploitation requires only network RPC traffic to an already-running NFS/NLM server; no end-user actions such as mounting a share or opening files are needed beyond normal server exposure. S:U - Impact is kernel heap corruption and privilege escalation within the host kernel context; it does not inherently cross a VM, container, or IOMMU security boundary to another authority. C:H - The bug is an explicit double-free/use-after-free of per-request NFS release state (e.g. nfsd4_release_compoundargs kfree/vfree chains and fh_put paths), enabling arbitrary kernel memory disclosure when exploited. I:H - Re-invoking pc_release on reused svc_rqst buffers corrupts heap metadata and object lifetimes, providing a standard kernel double-free/UAF primitive suitable for arbitrary write and code execution. A:H - Repeated or mistimed pc_release calls can immediately panic the kernel via SLUB double-free detection, oops, or wedged nfsd worker threads, causing complete loss of availability on NFS-serving systems.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from d9adbb6e10bf7d4223d3d521ede1b2052903bc5e to 66014ab165cb01bfef5836939412a8ef98d5d5ff (excl.)
  • affected from d9adbb6e10bf7d4223d3d521ede1b2052903bc5e to 31ba490c02d476a5e4f90b8845932ac9db8aa71b (excl.)
  • affected from d9adbb6e10bf7d4223d3d521ede1b2052903bc5e to 18d216788bef06332ff8901670ecf1ed8f6eb614 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.18 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.18 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.40 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.5 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2 to * (incl.)

References