CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-68170

CriticalCVSS 9.8
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.52%

41th percentile - higher than 41% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, a vulnerability was found in the MPTCP implementation, involving a stale skb->sk pointer to a closing subflow. The backlog cleanup was performed without proper synchronization, which could lead to a use-after-free condition.

Risk Assessment

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a system crash (kernel panic) or potentially escalate privileges, posing a serious threat to system integrity and availability.

Recommendation

It is recommended to immediately update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix (commit that removes the unprotected backlog traversal and moves cleanup into __mptcp_close_ssk()). Monitor distribution security advisories and apply the patch as soon as possible.

Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mptcp: fix stale skb->sk reference on subflow close The backlog list is updated by mptcp_data_ready() under mptcp_data_lock(). The cleanup of backlog references to a closing subflow, however, was performed in mptcp_close_ssk(), before __mptcp_close_ssk() acquires the ssk lock, and while holding neither the ssk lock nor mptcp_data_lock(). Because that traversal ran without mptcp_data_lock(), concurrent softirq RX processing on another CPU (subflow_data_ready() -> mptcp_data_ready() -> __mptcp_add_backlog(), under mptcp_data_lock()) could add a backlog entry referencing the ssk while the cleanup loop was in progress. Such an entry could be missed by the cleanup, or the concurrent list update could corrupt the traversal, leaving skb->sk pointing at the ssk after it is freed. A later mptcp_backlog_purge() then dereferences the stale pointer, triggering a warning in inet_sock_destruct() (ssk->sk_rmem_alloc != 0) followed by a use-after-free in mptcp_backlog_purge(). Fix this by moving the backlog cleanup into __mptcp_close_ssk(), after subflow->closing is set to 1 and while the ssk lock is still held, serialized under mptcp_data_lock(). The cleanup runs only on the push path (MPTCP_CF_PUSH), where backlog references accumulate; on other teardown paths the caller already handles cleanup. With subflow->closing set and mptcp_data_lock() held across the purge, any concurrent mptcp_data_ready() either completes its enqueue before the purge runs and is caught, or observes closing=1 and bails out. Once mptcp_data_unlock() is reached, no new skb referencing the ssk can be enqueued, so the cleanup is exhaustive. Remove the unprotected traversal from mptcp_close_ssk() entirely.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS