CVE-2026-23450

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

net/smc: fix NULL dereference and UAF in smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock()

Syzkaller reported a panic in smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() [1].

smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() is called in the TCP receive path (softirq) via icsk_af_ops->syn_recv_sock on the clcsock (TCP listening socket). It reads sk_user_data to get the smc_sock pointer. However, when the SMC listen socket is being closed concurrently, smc_close_active() sets clcsock->sk_user_data to NULL under sk_callback_lock, and then the smc_sock itself can be freed via sock_put() in smc_release().

This leads to two issues:

1. NULL pointer dereference: sk_user_data is NULL when accessed.
2. Use-after-free: sk_user_data is read as non-NULL, but the smc_sock is freed before its fields (e.g., queued_smc_hs, ori_af_ops) are accessed.

The race window looks like this (the syzkaller crash [1] triggers via the SYN cookie path: tcp_get_cookie_sock() -> smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock(), but the normal tcp_check_req() path has the same race):

CPU A (softirq) CPU B (process ctx)

tcp_v4_rcv() TCP_NEW_SYN_RECV: sk = req->rsk_listener sock_hold(sk) /* No lock on listener */ smc_close_active(): write_lock_bh(cb_lock) sk_user_data = NULL write_unlock_bh(cb_lock) … smc_clcsock_release() sock_put(smc->sk) x2 -> smc_sock freed! tcp_check_req() smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock(): smc = user_data(sk) -> NULL or dangling smc->queued_smc_hs -> crash!

Note that the clcsock and smc_sock are two independent objects with separate refcounts. TCP stack holds a reference on the clcsock, which keeps it alive, but this does NOT prevent the smc_sock from being freed.

Fix this by using RCU and refcount_inc_not_zero() to safely access smc_sock. Since smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() is called in the TCP three-way handshake path, taking read_lock_bh on sk_callback_lock is too heavy and would not survive a SYN flood attack. Using rcu_read_lock() is much more lightweight.

• Set SOCK_RCU_FREE on the SMC listen socket so that smc_sock freeing is deferred until after the RCU grace period. This guarantees the memory is still valid when accessed inside rcu_read_lock().
• Use rcu_read_lock() to protect reading sk_user_data.
• Use refcount_inc_not_zero(&smc->sk.sk_refcnt) to pin the smc_sock. If the refcount has already reached zero (close path completed), it returns false and we bail out safely.

Note: smc_hs_congested() has a similar lockless read of sk_user_data without rcu_read_lock(), but it only checks for NULL and accesses the global smc_hs_wq, never dereferencing any smc_sock field, so it is not affected.

Reproducer was verified with mdelay injection and smc_run, the issue no longer occurs with this patch applied.

[1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=827ae2bfb3a3529333e9

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/1e4f873879e075bbd4eb1c644d6933303ac5eba4
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1fab5ece76fb42a761178dcd0ebcbf578377b0dd
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6d5e4538364b9ceb1ac2941a4deb86650afb3538
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cadf3da46c15523fba90d80c9955f536ee3b4023
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f00fc26c8a06442b225a350fe000c0a11483e6a3
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f315277856caeafcd996c2611afc085ca2d53275
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fd7579f0a2c84ba8a7d4f206201b50dc8ddf90c2