CVE-2026-74465: net: openvswitch: fix potential UAF on meter attach failure

Published Aug 15, 2026
·
Updated

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: openvswitch: fix potential UAF on meter attach failure

While attaching a newly created meter attachmeter() function makes the new meter visible to other CPUs but can still fail afterwards. On failure, it detaches the meter back and returns an error.

However, this is an unexpected behavior for the ovsmetercmdset() that uses a plain kfree(meter) on attach failure without waiting for RCU readers to stop using it, assuming it was never visible.

This is never a problem for ovs-vswitchd as it always creates meters before creating any flows that use them. But the UAF can be triggered with a custom application using uAPI:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ovsmeterexecute (net/openvswitch/meter.c:653) Read of size 8 at addr ffff88810d152650 by task meter/2508

Call Trace: ovsmeterexecute (net/openvswitch/meter.c:653) doexecuteactions (net/openvswitch/actions.c:1407) ovsexecuteactions (net/openvswitch/actions.c:1584) ovspacketcmdexecute (net/openvswitch/datapath.c:703) ... netlinksendmsg (afnetlink.c:1900)

Allocated by task 2519: kasankmalloc (mm/kasan/common.c:398 mm/kasan/common.c:415) ovsmetercmdset (net/openvswitch/meter.c:422) ... netlinksendmsg (afnetlink.c:1900)

Freed by task 2519: kfree (mm/slub.c:2705 mm/slub.c:6405 mm/slub.c:6720) ovsmetercmdset (net/openvswitch/meter.c:479) ... netlinksendmsg (afnetlink.c:1900)

Fix that by making sure attachmeter() doesn't make the meter visible until all the checks are done and the function can't fail anymore.

This also makes sure the "hash" value is calculated after the potential re-sizing of the table.

Reported by Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative as ZDI-CAN-31642.

Affected Software

1 affected component
Open vSwitch Linux kernel (net/openvswitch)

Event History

Aug 15, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·12:27 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·12:27 PM
Description
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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2026-74465?

The severity of CVE-2026-74465 is rated at 48.

2

How do I fix CVE-2026-74465?

To fix CVE-2026-74465, you should update the Open vSwitch to the latest patched version that addresses this vulnerability.

3

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2026-74465?

CVE-2026-74465 is categorized as a Use After Free vulnerability.

4

What are the potential consequences of CVE-2026-74465?

The potential consequences of CVE-2026-74465 include the possibility of system instability or security risks due to improper memory management.

5

In which software is CVE-2026-74465 found?

CVE-2026-74465 is found in the Open vSwitch component of the Linux kernel.

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