CVE-2026-74628: net/x25: fix use-after-free of the socket by its timers

Published Aug 22, 2026
·
Updated

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

net/x25: fix use-after-free of the socket by its timers

The x25 timers are armed with modtimer() and cancelled with timerdelete(), so a pending timer holds no reference on the socket and a cancel does not wait for a callback already running on another CPU.

x25heartbeatexpiry() also rearms unconditionally, so it can reinstall sk->sktimer after x25destroysocket() has passed its cancel point. The following sockput() frees the socket while the timer is still queued, and the next expiry uses freed memory. KASAN reports a slab-use-after-free on the kmalloc-2k object freed by close().

timerdeletesync() cannot be used here: x25heartbeatexpiry() and x25timerexpiry() both reach the cancels from inside the timer they would wait on, through x25destroysocket() and x25disconnect().

Arm the timers with skresettimer() and cancel them with skstoptimer() so that an armed timer owns a reference, and release it in both expiry handlers. Rearm the heartbeat only while skhashed(sk) is still true, since x25destroysocket() unlinks the socket before dropping it. Arm the deferred destroy timer the same way and drop its reference in x25destroytimer().

Reproduced on net with KASAN, with the heartbeat period shortened so the window recurs. With this patch the reproducer no longer triggers a report and /proc/net/x25 drains.

Discovered by XBOW, triaged by Baul Lee <baul.lee@xbow.com>

Affected Software

1 affected component
Linux Linux kernel

Event History

Aug 22, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·03:32 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·03:32 PM
Description
Data Sourced
via NVD·04:16 PM
Description

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