CVE-2026-64045
Received
Received - Intake
Use-After-Free in OpenVPN Kernel Module
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-64045, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-07-19
Last updated on: 2026-07-19
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ovpn: tcp - use cached peer pointer in ovpn_tcp_close()
ovpn_tcp_close() loads the ovpn_socket via rcu_dereference_sk_user_data()
under rcu_read_lock(), takes a reference on sock->peer, caches the peer
pointer in a local, and drops the read lock. It then passes sock->peer
(rather than the cached local) to ovpn_peer_del(), re-dereferencing the
ovpn_socket after the RCU read section has ended.
Unlike ovpn_tcp_sendmsg(), which uses the same "load under RCU, use
after unlock" pattern but is protected by lock_sock() held across the
function, ovpn_tcp_close() runs without the socket lock: inet_release()
invokes sk_prot->close() without taking lock_sock first.
ovpn_socket_release() can therefore complete its kref_put -> detach ->
synchronize_rcu -> kfree(sock) sequence concurrently, in the window
after ovpn_tcp_close() drops rcu_read_lock() but before it dereferences
sock->peer. The synchronize_rcu() in ovpn_socket_release() protects
readers that use the dereferenced pointer inside the RCU read section,
not those that escape the pointer to a local and use it afterwards.
A reproducer follows the pattern of commit 94560267d6c4 ("ovpn: tcp -
don't deref NULL sk_socket member after tcp_close()"): trigger a peer
removal (keepalive expiration or netlink OVPN_CMD_DEL_PEER) at the same
moment userspace closes the TCP fd. That commit fixed the detach-side
of the same race window; this one fixes the close-side at a different
victim.
Tighten the entry block to read sock->peer exactly once into the cached
peer local, and route all subsequent uses (the hold check, the
ovpn_peer_del() call, and the prot->close() invocation) through that
local. sock->peer is only ever written once in ovpn_socket_new() under
lock_sock(), before rcu_assign_sk_user_data() publishes the ovpn_socket,
and is never reassigned afterwards - but the previous multi-read pattern
made that invariant implicit rather than explicit. The same multi-read
shape exists in ovpn_tcp_recvmsg(), ovpn_tcp_sendmsg(),
ovpn_tcp_data_ready() and ovpn_tcp_write_space(); those will be cleaned
up via a dedicated helper in a follow-up net-next series.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
Currently, no data is known.
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
