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

net: do not leave a dangling sk pointer, when socket creation fails

It is possible to trigger a use-after-free by:

• attaching an fentry probe to __sock_release() and the probe calling the bpf_get_socket_cookie() helper
• running traceroute -I 1.1.1.1 on a freshly booted VM

A KASAN enabled kernel will log something like below (decoded and stripped):

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __sock_gen_cookie (./arch/x86/include/asm/atomic64_64.h:15 ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-arch-fallback.h:2583 ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:1611 net/core/sock_diag.c:29) Read of size 8 at addr ffff888007110dd8 by task traceroute/299

CPU: 2 PID: 299 Comm: traceroute Tainted: G E 6.10.0-rc2+ #2 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.2-debian-1.16.2-1 04/01/2014 Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl (lib/dump_stack.c:117 (discriminator 1)) print_report (mm/kasan/report.c:378 mm/kasan/report.c:488) ? __sock_gen_cookie (./arch/x86/include/asm/atomic64_64.h:15 ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-arch-fallback.h:2583 ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:1611 net/core/sock_diag.c:29) kasan_report (mm/kasan/report.c:603) ? __sock_gen_cookie (./arch/x86/include/asm/atomic64_64.h:15 ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-arch-fallback.h:2583 ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:1611 net/core/sock_diag.c:29) kasan_check_range (mm/kasan/generic.c:183 mm/kasan/generic.c:189) __sock_gen_cookie (./arch/x86/include/asm/atomic64_64.h:15 ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-arch-fallback.h:2583 ./include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:1611 net/core/sock_diag.c:29) bpf_get_socket_ptr_cookie (./arch/x86/include/asm/preempt.h:94 ./include/linux/sock_diag.h:42 net/core/filter.c:5094 net/core/filter.c:5092) bpf_prog_875642cf11f1d139___sock_release+0x6e/0x8e bpf_trampoline_6442506592+0x47/0xaf __sock_release (net/socket.c:652) __sock_create (net/socket.c:1601) … Allocated by task 299 on cpu 2 at 78.328492s: kasan_save_stack (mm/kasan/common.c:48) kasan_save_track (mm/kasan/common.c:68) __kasan_slab_alloc (mm/kasan/common.c:312 mm/kasan/common.c:338) kmem_cache_alloc_noprof (mm/slub.c:3941 mm/slub.c:4000 mm/slub.c:4007) sk_prot_alloc (net/core/sock.c:2075) sk_alloc (net/core/sock.c:2134) inet_create (net/ipv4/af_inet.c:327 net/ipv4/af_inet.c:252) __sock_create (net/socket.c:1572) __sys_socket (net/socket.c:1660 net/socket.c:1644 net/socket.c:1706) __x64_sys_socket (net/socket.c:1718) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130)

Freed by task 299 on cpu 2 at 78.328502s: kasan_save_stack (mm/kasan/common.c:48) kasan_save_track (mm/kasan/common.c:68) kasan_save_free_info (mm/kasan/generic.c:582) poison_slab_object (mm/kasan/common.c:242) __kasan_slab_free (mm/kasan/common.c:256) kmem_cache_free (mm/slub.c:4437 mm/slub.c:4511) __sk_destruct (net/core/sock.c:2117 net/core/sock.c:2208) inet_create (net/ipv4/af_inet.c:397 net/ipv4/af_inet.c:252) __sock_create (net/socket.c:1572) __sys_socket (net/socket.c:1660 net/socket.c:1644 net/socket.c:1706) __x64_sys_socket (net/socket.c:1718) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130)

Fix this by clearing the struct socket reference in sk_common_release() to cover all protocol families create functions, which may already attached the reference to the sk object with sock_init_data().

Weakness

The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory “belongs” to the code that operates on the new pointer.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/454c454ed645fed051216b79622f7cb69c1638f5
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5dfe2408fd7dc4d2e7ac38a116ff0a37b1cfd3b9
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6cd4a78d962bebbaf8beb7d2ead3f34120e3f7b2
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/78e4aa528a7b1204219d808310524344f627d069
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/893eeba94c40d513cd0fe6539330ebdaea208c0e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/454c454ed645fed051216b79622f7cb69c1638f5
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5dfe2408fd7dc4d2e7ac38a116ff0a37b1cfd3b9
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6cd4a78d962bebbaf8beb7d2ead3f34120e3f7b2
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/78e4aa528a7b1204219d808310524344f627d069
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/893eeba94c40d513cd0fe6539330ebdaea208c0e
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/01/msg00001.html