CVE-2026-46116 | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: defensively unhash xfrm_state lists in __xfrm_state_delete KASAN reproduces a slab-use-after-free in __xfrm_state_delete()'s hlist_del_rcu calls under syzkaller load on linux-6.12.y stable (reproduced on 6.12.47, also reachable via the same code path on torvalds/master and on the ipsec tree). Nine unique signatures cluster in the xfrm_state lifecycle, the load-bearing one being: BU
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
xfrm: defensively unhash xfrm_state lists in __xfrm_state_delete
KASAN reproduces a slab-use-after-free in __xfrm_state_delete()'s
hlist_del_rcu calls under syzkaller load on linux-6.12.y stable
(reproduced on 6.12.47, also reachable via the same code path on
torvalds/master and on the ipsec tree). Nine unique signatures cluster
in the xfrm_state lifecycle, the load-bearing one being:
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __hlist_del include/linux/list.h:990 [inline]
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in hlist_del_rcu include/linux/rculist.h:516 [inline]
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __xfrm_state_delete net/xfrm/xfrm_state.c
Write of size 8 at addr ffff8881198bcb70 by task kworker/u8:9/435
Workqueue: netns cleanup_net
Call Trace:
__hlist_del / hlist_del_rcu
__xfrm_state_delete
xfrm_state_delete
xfrm_state_flush
xfrm_state_fini
ops_exit_list
cleanup_net
The other observed signatures hit the same slab object from
__xfrm_state_lookup, xfrm_alloc_spi, __xfrm_state_insert and an OOB
write variant of __xfrm_state_delete, all on the byseq/byspi
hash chains.
__xfrm_state_delete() guards its byseq and byspi unhashes with
value-based predicates:
if (x->km.seq)
hlist_del_rcu(&x->byseq);
if (x->id.spi)
hlist_del_rcu(&x->byspi);
while everywhere else in the file (e.g. state_cache, state_cache_input)
the safer hlist_unhashed() check is used. xfrm_alloc_spi() sets
x->id.spi = newspi inside xfrm_state_lock and then immediately inserts
into byspi, but a path that observes x->id.spi != 0 outside of
xfrm_state_lock can still skip-or-hit the byspi unhash inconsistently
with whether x is actually on the list. The same holds for x->km.seq
versus byseq, and the bydst/bysrc unhashes have no predicate at all,
so a second __xfrm_state_delete() on the same object writes through
LIST_POISON pprev.
The defensive change here:
- Use hlist_del_init_rcu() instead of hlist_del_rcu() on bydst,
bysrc, byseq and byspi so a second deletion is a no-op rather
than a write through LIST_POISON pprev. The byseq/byspi nodes
are already initialised in xfrm_state_alloc().
- Test hlist_unhashed() rather than the value predicate for
byseq/byspi, so the unhash decision tracks list state rather than
mutable scalar fields.
Empirical verification: applied this patch on top of v6.12.47, rebuilt,
and re-ran the same syzkaller harness for 1h16m on a previously-crashy
configuration that produced ~100 hits each of slab-use-after-free
Read in xfrm_alloc_spi / Read in __xfrm_state_lookup / Write in
__xfrm_state_delete. After the patch, 7.1M execs across 32 VMs at
~1550 exec/sec produced zero xfrm_state UAF/OOB hits. /proc/slabinfo
confirms the xfrm_state slab is actively allocated and freed during
the run (~143 KiB resident), so the fuzzer is still exercising those
code paths -- they just no longer crash.
Reproduction:
- Linux 6.12.47 x86_64 + KASAN_GENERIC + KASAN_INLINE + KCOV
- syzkaller @ 746545b8b1e4c3a128db8652b340d3df90ce61db
- 32 QEMU/KVM VMs x 2 vCPU on AWS c5.metal bare metal
- 9 unique signatures collected in ~9h, all within xfrm_state
lifecycle
- 🔗 git.kernel.org/stable/c/6b4dc3181b4bfc5f5fc33ab33b1dc6e1…
- 🔗 git.kernel.org/stable/c/3943fcad7694a7d0b15aeabe7d3cc2a2…
- 🔗 git.kernel.org/stable/c/2c617848ae6e4f07a3e397f604208c29…
- 🔗 git.kernel.org/stable/c/b4a53add2fa8f1b5aa17d4c5686c3207…
- 🔗 git.kernel.org/stable/c/26edb0a3c99f9d958c212be68b21f122…
- 🔗 git.kernel.org/stable/c/4980162de555cb838f1a189ce7d2cbf5…
- 🔗 git.kernel.org/stable/c/a2e2d08fb070fab4947447171f1c4e3c…
- 🔗 git.kernel.org/stable/c/14acf9652e5690de3c7486c6db5fb8da…
Zero-Day & Vulnerability Intelligence Hub
Echtzeit-Tracking mit EPSS Exploit-Wahrscheinlichkeiten, Angriffsvektor-Decodern und KI-Patch-Anleitungen.
📊 Historien-Charts — Criticals-Trend · Vendors · EPSS-Verteilung
| Tier | 2026-08-29 | 2026-09-06 |
|---|---|---|
| ≥90 % | 4 | 0 |
| ≥50 % | 4 | 0 |
| ≥10 % | 3 | 0 |
| <10 % | 304 | 300 |
CVE-2026-46116 | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: defensively unhash xfrm_state lists in __xfrm_state_delete KASAN reproduces a slab-use-after-free in __xfrm_state_delete()'s hlist_del_rcu calls under syzkaller load on linux-6.12.y stable (reproduced on 6.12.47, also reachable via the same code path on torvalds/master and on the ipsec tree). Nine unique signatures cluster in the xfrm_state lifecycle, the load-bearing one being: BU
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: defensively unhash xfrm_state lists in __xfrm_state_delete KASAN reproduces a slab-use-after-free in __xfrm_state_delete()'s hlist_del_rcu calls under syzkaller loa