CVE-2026-98369

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

xfrm: add missing rcu_read_lock(), skb_dst_force() and dev_hold() for xfrm_trans_reinject()

syzbot reported a suspicious RCU usage warning in ip6_pkt_drop():

WARNING: suspicious RCU usage in ip6_pkt_drop include/net/addrconf.h:389 suspicious rcu_dereference_check() usage!

Call Trace: __in6_dev_get_safely include/net/addrconf.h:389 [inline] ip6_pkt_drop+0x596/0x610 net/ipv6/route.c:4620 ip6_pkt_discard+0x1c/0x30 net/ipv6/route.c:4651 xfrm_trans_reinject+0x324/0x630 net/xfrm/xfrm_input.c:806 process_one_work kernel/workqueue.c:3322 [inline] process_scheduled_works+0xa8e/0x14e0 kernel/workqueue.c:3405 worker_thread+0xa47/0xfb0 kernel/workqueue.c:3486

When commit 4f4920669d21 (xfrm: Reinject transport-mode packets through workqueue) converted xfrm_trans_reinject from a tasklet to a workqueue, the reinjection loop ceased running in softirq context. Workqueue workers run in process context where local_bh_disable() does not enter an RCU read-side critical section under CONFIG_PREEMPT_RCU.

Because finish callbacks (such as ip6_rcv_finish) expect to run under an RCU read lock (performing route lookups, l3mdev lookups, and accessing RCU-protected data structures), invoking them in workqueue context without rcu_read_lock() triggers RCU lockdep warnings.

Furthermore, packets queued to the workqueue via xfrm_trans_queue_net() may carry non-refcounted (noref) dst entries (e.g. from ip_route_input_noref). Additionally, on netdevice unregistration, dst_dev_put() replaces dst->dev with blackhole_netdev, so dst entries do not keep skb->dev alive while queued in the workqueue.

Fix these issues by:

1. Calling skb_dst_force(skb) in xfrm_trans_queue_net() while still in the callers RCU section to ensure dst is reference-counted before queuing.
2. Holding a reference on skb->dev via dev_hold()/dev_put() across workqueue deferral so skb->dev remains valid during finish() callback processing.
3. Acquiring rcu_read_lock() around the finish callback invocation loop in xfrm_trans_reinject().

Affected Software

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0cda8273265d30cac6423834fd7d4acb75f04fdb
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/41e47f1664be86c91326f0afe0504a1162d00907
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6601d91a85761f33351c71e04ec0bbd294ca07ce
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/664fc0941df7c1918b2cd4de6ee00469ba77d8e4
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/68a317b4aec8ca1868a39d69e40f9e29baa4f40a
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6eb3b071be8e260543c604550c54dac66e6b174b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d2f5082f9e84653fa1a9e8aebaaff23e688f5e19