CVE-2026-64424
Analyzed
Analyzed - Analysis Complete
Use-After-Free in Linux Kernel Netpoll Subsystem
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-64424, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-07-25
Last updated on: 2026-09-04
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
netpoll: fix a use-after-free on shutdown path
There is a use-after-free error on netpoll, which is clearly detected by
KASAN.
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x3b/0x80
Read of size 1 at addr ... by task kworker/9:1
Workqueue: events queue_process
Call Trace:
skb_dequeue+0x1e/0xb0
queue_process+0x2c/0x600
process_scheduled_works+0x4b6/0x850
worker_thread+0x414/0x5a0
Allocated by task 242:
__netpoll_setup+0x201/0x4a0
netpoll_setup+0x249/0x550
enabled_store+0x32f/0x380
Freed by task 0:
kfree+0x1b7/0x540
rcu_core+0x3f8/0x7a0
The problem happens when there is a pending TX worker running in
parallel with the cleanup path.
This is what happens on netpoll shutdown path:
1) __netpoll_cleanup() is called
2) set dev->npinfo to NULL
3) call_rcu() with rcu_cleanup_netpoll_info()
3.1) rcu_cleanup_netpoll_info() tries to cancel all workers with
cancel_delayed_work(), but doesn't wait for the worker to finish
4) and kfree(npinfo);
Because 3.1) doesn't really cancel the work, as the comment says "we
can't call cancel_delayed_work_sync here, as we are in softirq", the TX
worker can run after 4).
Tl;DR: queue_process() is not an RCU reader, it reaches npinfo through
the work item via container_of().
Use disable_delayed_work_sync() to ensure the worker is completely
stopped and prevent any future re-arming attempts. Once npinfo is set
to NULL, senders will bail out and not queue new work. The disable flag
ensures any in-flight re-arming attempts also fail silently.
In the future, we can do the cleanup inline here without needing the
npinfo->rcu rcu_head, but that is net-next material.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | 3.6 |
| linux | linux_kernel | 3.6 |
| linux | linux_kernel | 3.6 |
| linux | linux_kernel | 3.6 |
| linux | linux_kernel | 3.6 |
| linux | linux_kernel | 3.6 |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 6.13 (inc) to 6.18.39 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 6.19 (inc) to 7.1.4 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | 7.2 |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 3.6.1 (inc) to 6.12.96 (exc) |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-416 | The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer. |
