CVE-2026-68117
Received
Received - Intake
Use-After-Free in Linux Kernel TIPC Socket Creation
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-68117, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-08-10
Last updated on: 2026-08-19
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tipc: clear sock->sk on the failed-insert path in tipc_sk_create()
When tipc_sk_create() fails to insert the new socket (tipc_sk_insert()
returns non-zero), its error path frees the sk with sk_free() but leaves
sock->sk pointing at the freed object:
if (tipc_sk_insert(tsk)) {
sk_free(sk);
pr_warn("Socket create failed; port number exhausted\n");
return -EINVAL;
}
This is harmless for plain socket(): the syscall layer clears sock->ops
before releasing, so tipc_release() is never called. It is not harmless
on the accept() path. tipc_accept() creates the pre-allocated child
socket with tipc_sk_create(net, new_sock, 0, kern); on failure it leaves
new_sock->sk dangling and new_sock->ops non-NULL, and do_accept() then
fput()s the new file, so __sock_release() -> tipc_release() runs
lock_sock(new_sock->sk) on the freed sk -- a use-after-free write of the
sk_lock spinlock.
tipc_release() already guards this exact "failed accept() releases a
pre-allocated child" case with "if (sk == NULL) return 0;", but the
guard is bypassed because tipc_sk_create() left sock->sk non-NULL
(dangling) rather than NULL.
Clear sock->sk on the failed-insert path so the existing tipc_release()
NULL check fires and the use-after-free is avoided.
The tipc_sk_insert() failure is reached when the per-netns socket
rhashtable hits its max_size (tsk_rht_params.max_size = 1048576, ~2M
elements) -- i.e. once a netns holds ~2M TIPC sockets every insert
returns -E2BIG.
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in lock_sock_nested (net/core/sock.c:3839)
Write of size 8 at addr ffff8880047cdc38 by task init/1
lock_sock_nested (net/core/sock.c:3839)
tipc_release (net/tipc/socket.c:638)
__sock_release (net/socket.c:710)
sock_close (net/socket.c:1501)
__fput (fs/file_table.c:512)
Allocated by task 1:
sk_alloc (net/core/sock.c:2308)
tipc_sk_create (net/tipc/socket.c:487)
tipc_accept (net/tipc/socket.c:2744)
do_accept (net/socket.c:2034)
Freed by task 1:
__sk_destruct (net/core/sock.c:2391)
tipc_sk_create (net/tipc/socket.c:504)
tipc_accept (net/tipc/socket.c:2744)
do_accept (net/socket.c:2034)
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux_kernel | tipc | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
