CVE-2026-53197
MediumCVSS 5.5Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk7th percentile — higher than 7% of all known CVEs
Summary
An ABBA deadlock was found in the Linux kernel's iptfs_destroy_state() function in the IPTFS (IPsec) implementation. The issue occurs when the function calls hrtimer_cancel() while holding a spinlock also required by the timer callback, leading to a deadlock on SMP systems.
Risk Assessment
The deadlock can cause system hangs or kernel crashes, especially in multi-core environments using IPsec with IPTFS. An attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability to perform a DoS attack.
Recommendation
Apply the Linux kernel patch that fixes the issue by moving the hrtimer_cancel() call before acquiring the spinlocks. Update to a kernel version containing the fix.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: iptfs: fix ABBA deadlock in iptfs_destroy_state() iptfs_destroy_state() calls hrtimer_cancel() while holding a spinlock that the timer callback also acquires, leading to an ABBA deadlock on SMP systems. For the output timer (iptfs_timer): - iptfs_destroy_state() holds x->lock, calls hrtimer_cancel() - iptfs_delay_timer() callback takes x->lock For the drop timer (drop_timer): - iptfs_destroy_state() holds drop_lock, calls hrtimer_cancel() - iptfs_drop_timer() callback takes drop_lock Both timers use HRTIMER_MODE_REL_SOFT, so their callbacks run in softirq context. When hrtimer_cancel() is called for a soft timer that is currently executing on another CPU, hrtimer_cancel_wait_running() spins on softirq_expiry_lock -- the same lock held by the softirq running the callback. If the callback is blocked waiting for the spinlock held by the caller of hrtimer_cancel(), a circular dependency forms: CPU 0: holds lock_A -> waits for softirq_expiry_lock CPU 1: holds softirq_expiry_lock -> waits for lock_A Fix by calling hrtimer_cancel() before acquiring the respective locks. hrtimer_cancel() is safe to call without holding any lock and will wait for any in-progress callback to complete. For the output timer, the lock is still acquired afterwards to drain the packet queue. For the drop timer, the lock/unlock pair is removed entirely since it only existed to serialize with the timer callback, which hrtimer_cancel() already guarantees. Found by source code audit.

