Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2025-68801 json

mlxsw: spectrum_router: Fix neighbour use-after-free

published 2026-01-13 9 mo ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2026-2299

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 4%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

mlxsw: spectrum_router: Fix neighbour use-after-free

We sometimes observe use-after-free when dereferencing a neighbour [1]. The problem seems to be that the driver stores a pointer to the neighbour, but without holding a reference on it. A reference is only taken when the neighbour is used by a nexthop.

Fix by simplifying the reference counting scheme. Always take a reference when storing a neighbour pointer in a neighbour entry. Avoid taking a referencing when the neighbour is used by a nexthop as the neighbour entry associated with the nexthop already holds a reference.

Tested by running the test that uncovered the problem over 300 times. Without this patch the problem was reproduced after a handful of iterations.

[1] BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in mlxsw_sp_neigh_entry_update+0x2d4/0x310 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88817f8e3420 by task ip/3929

CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 3929 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.18.0-rc4-virtme-g36b21a067510 #3 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Nvidia SN5600/VMOD0013, BIOS 5.13 05/31/2023 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x6f/0xa0 print_address_description.constprop.0+0x6e/0x300 print_report+0xfc/0x1fb kasan_report+0xe4/0x110 mlxsw_sp_neigh_entry_update+0x2d4/0x310 mlxsw_sp_router_rif_gone_sync+0x35f/0x510 mlxsw_sp_rif_destroy+0x1ea/0x730 mlxsw_sp_inetaddr_port_vlan_event+0xa1/0x1b0 __mlxsw_sp_inetaddr_lag_event+0xcc/0x130 __mlxsw_sp_inetaddr_event+0xf5/0x3c0 mlxsw_sp_router_netdevice_event+0x1015/0x1580 notifier_call_chain+0xcc/0x150 call_netdevice_notifiers_info+0x7e/0x100 __netdev_upper_dev_unlink+0x10b/0x210 netdev_upper_dev_unlink+0x79/0xa0 vrf_del_slave+0x18/0x50 do_set_master+0x146/0x7d0 do_setlink.isra.0+0x9a0/0x2880 rtnl_newlink+0x637/0xb20 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x6fe/0xb90 netlink_rcv_skb+0x123/0x380 netlink_unicast+0x4a3/0x770 netlink_sendmsg+0x75b/0xc90 __sock_sendmsg+0xbe/0x160 ____sys_sendmsg+0x5b2/0x7d0 ___sys_sendmsg+0xfd/0x180 __sys_sendmsg+0x124/0x1c0 do_syscall_64+0xbb/0xfd0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 [...]

Allocated by task 109: kasan_save_stack+0x30/0x50 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 __kasan_kmalloc+0x7b/0x90 __kmalloc_noprof+0x2c1/0x790 neigh_alloc+0x6af/0x8f0 ___neigh_create+0x63/0xe90 mlxsw_sp_nexthop_neigh_init+0x430/0x7e0 mlxsw_sp_nexthop_type_init+0x212/0x960 mlxsw_sp_nexthop6_group_info_init.constprop.0+0x81f/0x1280 mlxsw_sp_nexthop6_group_get+0x392/0x6a0 mlxsw_sp_fib6_entry_create+0x46a/0xfd0 mlxsw_sp_router_fib6_replace+0x1ed/0x5f0 mlxsw_sp_router_fib6_event_work+0x10a/0x2a0 process_one_work+0xd57/0x1390 worker_thread+0x4d6/0xd40 kthread+0x355/0x5b0 ret_from_fork+0x1d4/0x270 ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20

Freed by task 154: kasan_save_stack+0x30/0x50 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 __kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x60 __kasan_slab_free+0x43/0x70 kmem_cache_free_bulk.part.0+0x1eb/0x5e0 kvfree_rcu_bulk+0x1f2/0x260 kfree_rcu_work+0x130/0x1b0 process_one_work+0xd57/0x1390 worker_thread+0x4d6/0xd40 kthread+0x355/0x5b0 ret_from_fork+0x1d4/0x270 ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20

Last potentially related work creation: kasan_save_stack+0x30/0x50 kasan_record_aux_stack+0x8c/0xa0 kvfree_call_rcu+0x93/0x5b0 mlxsw_sp_router_neigh_event_work+0x67d/0x860 process_one_work+0xd57/0x1390 worker_thread+0x4d6/0xd40 kthread+0x355/0x5b0 ret_from_fork+0x1d4/0x270 ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.248, 5.15.198, 6.1.160, 6.6.120, 6.12.64, 6.18.3, 6.19
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.162-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.69-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.18.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68801

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-173.183
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-110.110
  • linux Ubuntu 25.10 6.17.0-22.22
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1103.110
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1052.55
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 25.10 6.17.0-1012.12
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1103.112
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1054.57

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68801

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-40.1
  • kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-40.1
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1.160000.2.7
  • kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:20845-1SUSE-SU-2026:20876-1SUSE-SU-2026:20555-1SUSE-SU-2026:20599-1SUSE-SU-2026:20615-1SUSE-SU-2026:20570-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:20287-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.121.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-74366

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2025-68801 updated cvss 5.6

kernel: mlxsw: spectrum_router: Fix neighbour use-after-free

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix available

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
23 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 4% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.