CVE-2026-72072
Received
Received - Intake
BaseFortify
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-72072, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-08-15
Last updated on: 2026-08-15
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/mlx5e: macsec: fix use-after-free of metadata_dst on RX SC delete
When an offloaded MACsec RX SC is deleted, macsec_del_rxsc_ctx() freed
the per-SC metadata_dst with metadata_dst_free(), which kfree()s the
object unconditionally and ignores the dst reference count. The RX
datapath in mlx5e_macsec_offload_handle_rx_skb() looks up the SC under
rcu_read_lock() via xa_load(), takes a reference with dst_hold() and
attaches the dst to the skb with skb_dst_set(). A reader that already
obtained the rx_sc pointer can race with the delete path and operate on
freed memory.
Fix the owner side by dropping the reference with dst_release() instead
of freeing unconditionally, and convert the RX datapath to
dst_hold_safe() so a reader racing the SC delete cannot attach a dst
whose last reference was just dropped; only attach it when a reference
was actually taken.
mlx5e_macsec_add_rxsc() also published sc_xarray_element via xa_alloc()
before rx_sc->md_dst was allocated and initialised, so a datapath reader
that looked the SC up by fs_id could observe rx_sc with md_dst still
NULL or, on weakly-ordered architectures, a non-NULL md_dst pointer
whose contents were not yet visible. NULL-check the xa_load() result and
md_dst on the datapath, and reorder add_rxsc() so the xa_alloc() publish
happens only after md_dst is fully initialised; the xarray RCU publish
then pairs with the rcu_read_lock()/xa_load() in the datapath.
Note: macsec_del_rxsc_ctx() also kfree()s rx_sc->sc_xarray_element
without an RCU grace period while the same datapath reads it under
rcu_read_lock(); that is a separate pre-existing issue left to a
follow-up patch.
Found by 0sec automated security-research tooling (https://0sec.ai).
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
