CVE-2026-80848 PUBLISHED

xfrm: espintcp: fix UAF during close

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 26.08.2026 Published: 04.09.2026 Updated: 04.09.2026

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

xfrm: espintcp: fix UAF during close

ZDI reported and analyzed a race condition during close for espintcp sockets:

<pre>espintcp_close() frees emsg->skb via kfree_skb() without holding any socket lock. Concurrently, the xfrm_trans_reinject work queue invokes esp_output_tcp_finish() -> espintcp_push_skb() -> espintcp_push_msgs() -> skb_send_sock_locked(), which reads the same skb as a data source. </pre>

Fix this by adding a synchronize_rcu() call after resetting sk_prot, since esp_output_tcp_finish() runs under RCU and won't use a socket with sk_prot == &tcp_prot. Simply taking the socket lock in espintcp_close() could lead to leaks, if esp_output_tcp_finish() re-adds an skb in the slot we just freed. After this, the existing barrier() is no longer needed.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from e27cca96cd68fa2c6814c90f9a1cfd36bb68c593 to 29121c5e6591da527e8e36ddac7120dc527f574d (excl.)
  • affected from e27cca96cd68fa2c6814c90f9a1cfd36bb68c593 to ed5d9102190c45fc70121c036b0626b740040b75 (excl.)
  • affected from e27cca96cd68fa2c6814c90f9a1cfd36bb68c593 to 4bc0dfa28dca6fc0084203732695968049c44072 (excl.)
  • affected from e27cca96cd68fa2c6814c90f9a1cfd36bb68c593 to ff8dd7a932f34409a56e1b91a1219340f17457e9 (excl.)
  • affected from e27cca96cd68fa2c6814c90f9a1cfd36bb68c593 to 4b31a875693c480c611519faca46216514e3e052 (excl.)
  • affected from e27cca96cd68fa2c6814c90f9a1cfd36bb68c593 to 24efebecf415ba264adba0f0491cec436463a14f (excl.)
  • affected from e27cca96cd68fa2c6814c90f9a1cfd36bb68c593 to eb3bbf29c723fe75c0eb92be14f0ec92971fe272 (excl.)
  • affected from e27cca96cd68fa2c6814c90f9a1cfd36bb68c593 to 54b41ad14da9a981131ab6e4d3f79321a503ea5d (excl.)
  • affected from e27cca96cd68fa2c6814c90f9a1cfd36bb68c593 to deb232e884877bf10b4ce2580909eedec986c284 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.6 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.6 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.269 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.220 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.187 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.156 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.108 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.49 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.13 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.3 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc1 to * (incl.)

References