From: Yochai Eisenrich <echelonh@gmail.com>
To: willemdebruijn.kernel@gmail.com
Cc: Yochai Eisenrich <echelonh@gmail.com>,
Andrew Lunn <andrew+netdev@lunn.ch>,
"David S. Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>,
Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>,
Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>, Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>,
netdev@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH] net: fix fanout UAF in packet_release() via NETDEV_UP race
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2026 22:06:10 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260319200610.25101-1-echelonh@gmail.com> (raw)
`packet_release()` has a race window where `NETDEV_UP` can re-register a
socket into a fanout group's `arr[]` array. The re-registration is not
cleaned up by `fanout_release()`, leaving a dangling pointer in the fanout
array.
`packet_release()` does NOT zero `po->num` in its `bind_lock` section.
After releasing `bind_lock`, `po->num` is still non-zero and `po->ifindex`
still matches the bound device. A concurrent `packet_notifier(NETDEV_UP)`
that already found the socket in `sklist` can re-register the hook.
For fanout sockets, this re-registration calls `__fanout_link(sk, po)`
which adds the socket back into `f->arr[]` and increments `f->num_members`,
but does NOT increment `f->sk_ref`.
The fix sets `po->num` to zero in `packet_release` while `bind_lock` is
held to prevent NETDEV_UP from linking, preventing the race window.
This bug was found following an additional audit with Claude Code based on
CVE-2025-38617.
Link: https://blog.calif.io/p/a-race-within-a-race-exploiting-cve
Fixes: ce06b03e60fc ("packet: Add helpers to register/unregister ->prot_hook")
Signed-off-by: Yochai Eisenrich <echelonh@gmail.com>
---
net/packet/af_packet.c | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
diff --git a/net/packet/af_packet.c b/net/packet/af_packet.c
index 72d0935139f0..bb2d88205e5a 100644
--- a/net/packet/af_packet.c
+++ b/net/packet/af_packet.c
@@ -3135,6 +3135,7 @@ static int packet_release(struct socket *sock)
spin_lock(&po->bind_lock);
unregister_prot_hook(sk, false);
+ WRITE_ONCE(po->num, 0);
packet_cached_dev_reset(po);
if (po->prot_hook.dev) {
--
2.53.0
next reply other threads:[~2026-03-19 20:06 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-03-19 20:06 Yochai Eisenrich [this message]
2026-03-19 20:18 ` [PATCH] net: fix fanout UAF in packet_release() via NETDEV_UP race Willem de Bruijn
2026-03-24 0:30 ` patchwork-bot+netdevbpf
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