CVE-2026-23450
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk43th percentile - higher than 43% of all known CVEs
Summary
A vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel's smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() function in the SMC module. A race condition between closing an SMC socket and TCP connection handling in softirq context leads to NULL pointer dereference or use-after-free (UAF). An attacker could exploit this to cause a system panic.
Risk Assessment
The risk is a potential remote crash (kernel panic) by sending specially crafted network traffic to a system with SMC enabled. This could lead to service disruption and loss of availability.
Recommendation
Immediately update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix (commit addressing the issue). If an update is not possible, consider disabling the SMC module (smc) or restricting access to services using SMC.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-80923Unknown
In the Linux kernel, in the xhci: dbgtty driver, if tty_register_driver() fails, it drops the reference but fails to set the global dbc_tty_driver to NULL, causing the unregister to be called again when the module exits. This leads to a use-after-free condition.
- CVE-2026-80922Unknown
In the Linux kernel, in the crypto: qcom-rng module, the random number generator does not allow zero as an output, making its output distinguishable from truly random. Zero is a valid random number and should be allowed.
- CVE-2026-80920Unknown
In the Linux kernel, in io_uring, eventfd signaling is done inline when adding the first entry to the work list, which can cause issues when the addition is done from a wakeup handler context. The fix adds the IOU_F_TWQ_IN_WAKE flag to force deferral of signaling via call_rcu_hurry() instead of inline signaling.
- CVE-2026-80919Unknown
In the Linux kernel, a vulnerability was found in the amdgpu driver where amdgpu_devcoredump_format() recursively acquires a ww_mutex lock. This can lead to a deadlock when dumping IB contents from a hung job. The fix moves the operation to a separate helper using a single drm_exec context.
- CVE-2026-80918Unknown
In the Linux kernel, in HID: core, there is a number/pointer type confusion on long items. When fetch_item() is called by hid_scan_report() on an item with HID_ITEM_TAG_LONG, it stores a pointer to the item data in item->data.longdata instead of storing a value directly. Functions item_udata() and item_sdata() incorrectly assume short format, leading to the lower part of a kernel pointer being printed as a number in dmesg.
- CVE-2026-80917Unknown
A vulnerability in the Linux kernel causes a NULL pointer dereference in the PCI host-generic driver on 32-bit systems using CAM mode. During PCI bus enumeration, the first config read uses an uninitialized mapping, leading to a kernel panic. The issue stems from missing add_bus/remove_bus callbacks in the CAM operations, which are necessary for proper mapping of the config space.
- CVE-2026-80916Unknown
A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's KCOV mechanism causes data corruption and race conditions on PREEMPT_RT systems. The issue stems from storing temporary KCOV state in per-CPU areas, which can be overwritten by nested softirq preemption. Additionally, under certain initialization conditions, it may lead to kernel panic or memory leaks.
- CVE-2026-80915Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the drm/xe driver's DPT allocation paths were fixed. The fallback from VRAM to system memory was removed as it did not work and caused black screen with pipe faults. Also, stolen memory usage is avoided due to latency and risk of random system hangs under load.
- CVE-2026-80886Unknown
In the Linux kernel, a vulnerability in the msm serial driver was fixed by disabling DMA for the console UART. Concurrent writes from userspace and the kernel can trigger a race condition resulting in an infinite loop of the same messages. The fix disables DMA for the console UART to ensure a reliable output path.
- CVE-2026-80885Unknown
In the Linux kernel, a fix was made for an uncancelled rxrpc OOB message handler in AFS. The fix cancels OOB message processing (typically to respond to security challenges) and moves it to afs_wq so it is also waited for. The OOB handler now returns if the net namespace is no longer live.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/smc: fix NULL dereference and UAF in smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() Syzkaller reported a panic in smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() [1]. smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() is called in the TCP receive path (softirq) via icsk_af_ops->syn_recv_sock on the clcsock (TCP listening socket). It reads sk_user_data to get the smc_sock pointer. However, when the SMC listen socket is being closed concurrently, smc_close_active() sets clcsock->sk_user_data to NULL under sk_callback_lock, and then the smc_sock itself can be freed via sock_put() in smc_release(). This leads to two issues: 1) NULL pointer dereference: sk_user_data is NULL when accessed. 2) Use-after-free: sk_user_data is read as non-NULL, but the smc_sock is freed before its fields (e.g., queued_smc_hs, ori_af_ops) are accessed. The race window looks like this (the syzkaller crash [1] triggers via the SYN cookie path: tcp_get_cookie_sock() -> smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock(), but the normal tcp_check_req() path has the same race): CPU A (softirq) CPU B (process ctx) tcp_v4_rcv() TCP_NEW_SYN_RECV: sk = req->rsk_listener sock_hold(sk) /* No lock on listener */ smc_close_active(): write_lock_bh(cb_lock) sk_user_data = NULL write_unlock_bh(cb_lock) ... smc_clcsock_release() sock_put(smc->sk) x2 -> smc_sock freed! tcp_check_req() smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock(): smc = user_data(sk) -> NULL or dangling smc->queued_smc_hs -> crash! Note that the clcsock and smc_sock are two independent objects with separate refcounts. TCP stack holds a reference on the clcsock, which keeps it alive, but this does NOT prevent the smc_sock from being freed. Fix this by using RCU and refcount_inc_not_zero() to safely access smc_sock. Since smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() is called in the TCP three-way handshake path, taking read_lock_bh on sk_callback_lock is too heavy and would not survive a SYN flood attack. Using rcu_read_lock() is much more lightweight. - Set SOCK_RCU_FREE on the SMC listen socket so that smc_sock freeing is deferred until after the RCU grace period. This guarantees the memory is still valid when accessed inside rcu_read_lock(). - Use rcu_read_lock() to protect reading sk_user_data. - Use refcount_inc_not_zero(&smc->sk.sk_refcnt) to pin the smc_sock. If the refcount has already reached zero (close path completed), it returns false and we bail out safely. Note: smc_hs_congested() has a similar lockless read of sk_user_data without rcu_read_lock(), but it only checks for NULL and accesses the global smc_hs_wq, never dereferencing any smc_sock field, so it is not affected. Reproducer was verified with mdelay injection and smc_run, the issue no longer occurs with this patch applied. [1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=827ae2bfb3a3529333e9

