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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2026-68138 json

net/sched: serialize qdisc_rtab_list against concurrent get/put

published 2026-08-10 2 mo ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2026-55519

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 12%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

net/sched: serialize qdisc_rtab_list against concurrent get/put

qdisc_get_rtab() and qdisc_put_rtab() mutate the process-global singly linked list qdisc_rtab_list and a plain non-atomic 'int refcnt' with no lock. This was only safe because every caller historically held the RTNL mutex, which serialized all rate-table lookups, inserts and frees.

That invariant no longer holds. cls_flower sets TCF_PROTO_OPS_DOIT_UNLOCKED, so tc_new_tfilter() keeps rtnl_held == false for it and sets TCA_ACT_FLAGS_NO_RTNL. That flag propagates through tcf_exts_validate_ex() -> tcf_action_init() -> tcf_action_init_1() -> tcf_police_init(), which calls qdisc_get_rtab()/qdisc_put_rtab() with the RTNL mutex NOT held. Two RTM_NEWTFILTER requests on different CPUs, each adding a flower filter with a police action carrying the same rate, then race on qdisc_rtab_list and on the non-atomic refcnt, leading to a use-after-free / double-free of the kmalloc-2k struct qdisc_rate_table. qdisc_rtab_list is a single global (not per-netns), so the corrupted object is shared system-wide.

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in qdisc_put_rtab+0x12f/0x160 qdisc_put_rtab+0x12f/0x160 tcf_police_init+0xda9/0x1590 tcf_action_init_1+0x460/0x6b0 tcf_action_init+0x439/0xa40 tcf_exts_validate_ex+0x42d/0x550 fl_change+0xddd/0x7da0 tc_new_tfilter+0xaa7/0x2420 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x95e/0xe90 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-2k of size 2048

Protect qdisc_rtab_list and the refcount with a dedicated spinlock. The (sleeping, GFP_KERNEL) allocation in qdisc_get_rtab() is performed before taking the lock; if a concurrent inserter added an identical table in the meantime the freshly allocated one is freed under the lock, so no duplicate is leaked. qdisc_put_rtab() now decrements the refcount and unlinks under the same lock.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.266, 5.15.217, 6.1.184, 6.6.153, 6.12.105, 6.18.46, 7.1.6, 7.2
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.187-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.105-1
  • linux Debian 14 7.1.6-1
  • linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.107-1~deb12u1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68138

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-202.212
  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-38.38
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1119.126
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1014.14
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1120.130
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1014.14
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1115.121
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1008.9

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68138

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-64kb SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS 5.14.21-150500.55.189.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150500.55.189.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +2 more 5.14.21-150500.55.189.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +3 more 5.14.21-150500.55.189.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150500.55.189.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +2 more 5.14.21-150500.55.189.1.150500.6.87.4
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:4595-1SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1SUSE-SU-2026:4369-1SUSE-SU-2026:23951-1SUSE-SU-2026:23968-1SUSE-SU-2026:23944-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.38.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1

  • kernel-rt AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-core AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-modules AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-debug-core AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-debug-modules AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-modules-extra AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-debug-modules-extra AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10
  • kernel AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10

almalinux advisories ALSA-2026:89082ALSA-2026:89083

  • kernel-rt Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10
  • kernel Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2026:89082RLSA-2026:89083

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.157.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-95012

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-2026-68138 updated cvss 7.8

kernel: net/sched: serialize qdisc_rtab_list against concurrent get/put

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26 kernel
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10, kernel 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10, bpftool 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10, kernel-core 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10, kernel-tools 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10, python3-perf 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10, +15 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-553.178.1.el8_10
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:89083
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, +4 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-553.178.1.rt7.519.el8_10, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:89082
  • 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
    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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
23 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 12% 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
  • CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization
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.