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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2026-74628 in the critical feed json

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

published 2026-08-22 2 mo ago modified 2026-10-14 26 d ago also EUVD-2026-64565

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 43%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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 mod_timer() and cancelled with timer_delete(), so a pending timer holds no reference on the socket and a cancel does not wait for a callback already running on another CPU.

x25_heartbeat_expiry() also rearms unconditionally, so it can reinstall sk->sk_timer after __x25_destroy_socket() has passed its cancel point. The following __sock_put() 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().

timer_delete_sync() cannot be used here: x25_heartbeat_expiry() and x25_timer_expiry() both reach the cancels from inside the timer they would wait on, through __x25_destroy_socket() and x25_disconnect().

Arm the timers with sk_reset_timer() and cancel them with sk_stop_timer() so that an armed timer owns a reference, and release it in both expiry handlers. Rearm the heartbeat only while sk_hashed(sk) is still true, since __x25_destroy_socket() unlinks the socket before dropping it. Arm the deferred destroy timer the same way and drop its reference in x25_destroy_timer().

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>

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.267, 5.15.217, 6.1.184, 6.6.153, 6.12.105, 6.18.45, 7.1.9, 7.2
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.187-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.105-1
  • linux Debian 14 7.1.9-1
  • linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.107-1~deb12u1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74628

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-202.212
  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1119.126
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.17
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1120.130
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.18
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1115.121
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1113.117

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74628

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-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1.160000.2.26
  • kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-azure SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-obs-qa SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:24197-1SUSE-SU-2026:24184-1SUSE-SU-2026:24235-1SUSE-SU-2026:24179-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.39.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:22091-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.157.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-97077

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-2026-74628 updated cvss 5.5

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

  • 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

0.50% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 43% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

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