net/mlx5e: macsec: fix use-after-free of metadata_dst on RX SC delete (Linux Linux)

CVE-2026-72072
HIGH 7.8

At a glance

Source
NVD
EPSS
EPSS 0.17 % · percentile 7 ()
State
PUBLISHED
Published
Updated
Assigner
Linux
NVD status
Received

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).

Weaknesses (CWE)

References

Scores

VersionScoreVectorScored by
CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HLinux
CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HNVD · 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Secondary)

European references

CERT-FR advisories

Affected products

ProductVersions
Linux · Linuxaffected b7c9400cbc48c3713190b3bce4e0c87e924e4104 < b1a4d0c568bbb52c7c04f4fce3c097dae89ed6cb ; affected b7c9400cbc48c3713190b3bce4e0c87e924e4104 < 218cc15a4c907659ad4b0e68c535c61594311205 ; affected b7c9400cbc48c3713190b3bce4e0c87e924e4104 < 4a5073b7b30243658f58b2d2d35a823da7fd34d9 ; affected b7c9400cbc48c3713190b3bce4e0c87e924e4104 < ed3cc4218070d6b98bf5fb456dccae424fd38c4f ; affected b7c9400cbc48c3713190b3bce4e0c87e924e4104 < 088873af13590ebde10de2ade847f57a05ec61c6 ; affected b7c9400cbc48c3713190b3bce4e0c87e924e4104 < de74d8fd10291763d97b218f09adcc7513c975e4
Linux · Linuxaffected 6.1 ; unaffected 0 < 6.1 ; unaffected 6.1.178 ≤ 6.1.* ; unaffected 6.6.145 ≤ 6.6.* ; unaffected 6.12.97 ≤ 6.12.* ; unaffected 6.18.40 ≤ 6.18.*

Sources

SourceLicence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVDENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feedsPublic domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD