CVE-2026-31533
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk18th percentile - higher than 18% of all known CVEs
Summary
In the Linux kernel's TLS module, a use-after-free vulnerability was found in the -EBUSY error path of tls_do_encryption. Double cleanup of encrypt_pending and scatterlist entry corrupts data structures, allowing a callback on freed memory.
Risk Assessment
An attacker could exploit this vulnerability for remote code execution or privilege escalation by sending crafted TLS packets, potentially leading to full system compromise.
Recommendation
Apply the Linux kernel patch for CVE-2026-31533 immediately, which skips synchronous cleanup when the -EBUSY async wait returns an error.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/tls: fix use-after-free in -EBUSY error path of tls_do_encryption The -EBUSY handling in tls_do_encryption(), introduced by commit 859054147318 ("net: tls: handle backlogging of crypto requests"), has a use-after-free due to double cleanup of encrypt_pending and the scatterlist entry. When crypto_aead_encrypt() returns -EBUSY, the request is enqueued to the cryptd backlog and the async callback tls_encrypt_done() will be invoked upon completion. That callback unconditionally restores the scatterlist entry (sge->offset, sge->length) and decrements ctx->encrypt_pending. However, if tls_encrypt_async_wait() returns an error, the synchronous error path in tls_do_encryption() performs the same cleanup again, double-decrementing encrypt_pending and double-restoring the scatterlist. The double-decrement corrupts the encrypt_pending sentinel (initialized to 1), making tls_encrypt_async_wait() permanently skip the wait for pending async callbacks. A subsequent sendmsg can then free the tls_rec via bpf_exec_tx_verdict() while a cryptd callback is still pending, resulting in a use-after-free when the callback fires on the freed record. Fix this by skipping the synchronous cleanup when the -EBUSY async wait returns an error, since the callback has already handled encrypt_pending and sge restoration.

