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Fencer Vulns
high 8.4

CVE-2026-64045 json

ovpn: tcp - use cached peer pointer in ovpn_tcp_close()

published 2026-07-19 3 mo ago modified 2026-10-24 15 d ago also EUVD-2026-45618

cvss
8.4
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 9%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

ovpn: tcp - use cached peer pointer in ovpn_tcp_close()

ovpn_tcp_close() loads the ovpn_socket via rcu_dereference_sk_user_data() under rcu_read_lock(), takes a reference on sock->peer, caches the peer pointer in a local, and drops the read lock. It then passes sock->peer (rather than the cached local) to ovpn_peer_del(), re-dereferencing the ovpn_socket after the RCU read section has ended.

Unlike ovpn_tcp_sendmsg(), which uses the same "load under RCU, use after unlock" pattern but is protected by lock_sock() held across the function, ovpn_tcp_close() runs without the socket lock: inet_release() invokes sk_prot->close() without taking lock_sock first.

ovpn_socket_release() can therefore complete its kref_put -> detach -> synchronize_rcu -> kfree(sock) sequence concurrently, in the window after ovpn_tcp_close() drops rcu_read_lock() but before it dereferences sock->peer. The synchronize_rcu() in ovpn_socket_release() protects readers that use the dereferenced pointer inside the RCU read section, not those that escape the pointer to a local and use it afterwards.

A reproducer follows the pattern of commit 94560267d6c4 ("ovpn: tcp - don't deref NULL sk_socket member after tcp_close()"): trigger a peer removal (keepalive expiration or netlink OVPN_CMD_DEL_PEER) at the same moment userspace closes the TCP fd. That commit fixed the detach-side of the same race window; this one fixes the close-side at a different victim.

Tighten the entry block to read sock->peer exactly once into the cached peer local, and route all subsequent uses (the hold check, the ovpn_peer_del() call, and the prot->close() invocation) through that local. sock->peer is only ever written once in ovpn_socket_new() under lock_sock(), before rcu_assign_sk_user_data() publishes the ovpn_socket, and is never reassigned afterwards - but the previous multi-read pattern made that invariant implicit rather than explicit. The same multi-read shape exists in ovpn_tcp_recvmsg(), ovpn_tcp_sendmsg(), ovpn_tcp_data_ready() and ovpn_tcp_write_space(); those will be cleaned up via a dedicated helper in a follow-up net-next series.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.18.34, 7.0.11, 7.1
  • linux Debian 14 7.0.12-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-64045

  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-28.28
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1009.9
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1008.8
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1003.4
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1010.10
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1010.10
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1015.15
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-28.28.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-64045

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

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-2026-64045 updated

kernel: ovpn: tcp - use cached peer pointer in ovpn_tcp_close()

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more 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
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

Exploit prediction

0.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 9% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/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.