CVE Watchtower

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CVE-2026-98231NVD

Vulnerability Summary

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

xfrm: serialize state GC with device state flush

The deferred-device pass in xfrm_dev_state_flush() finds states under
xfrm_state_dev_gc_lock, but drops the lock before calling
xfrm_dev_state_free() because the driver callback may sleep. The device
GC list does not hold an xfrm_state reference, so the state GC worker can
destroy the same state concurrently.

The race can proceed as follows:

CPU 0 CPU 1
find x on the device GC list
drop xfrm_state_dev_gc_lock
read x->xso.dev
xfrm_state_gc_destroy(x)
xfrm_dev_state_free(x)
xfrm_state_free(x)
continue xfrm_dev_state_free(x)

Both paths can invoke the driver callback and drop the device reference.
CPU 0 can also access the xfrm_state after CPU 1 has freed it.

KASAN reported:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in xfrm_dev_state_free+0x24c/0x2a0
Read of size 8 at addr ffff88810bbaa960 by task poc/102

Call Trace:
xfrm_dev_state_free+0x24c/0x2a0
xfrm_dev_state_flush+0x353/0x400
xfrm_dev_event+0x26d/0x3a0
notifier_call_chain+0xc0/0x280
__dev_notify_flags+0x169/0x250
netif_change_flags+0xe7/0x160
dev_change_flags+0x96/0x220
devinet_ioctl+0x7f4/0x1880

Allocated by task 87:
xfrm_state_alloc+0x1e/0x5c0
xfrm_add_sa+0xe7f/0x5820
xfrm_user_rcv_msg+0x4f3/0x940

Freed by task 57:
kmem_cache_free+0xcb/0x3d0
xfrm_state_gc_task+0x4a8/0x650
process_one_work+0x63a/0x1070

Serialize xfrm_state destruction against the deferred-device pass with a
mutex. Keep xfrm_state_dev_gc_lock limited to list operations and retain
the existing callback and device-reference release ordering.
Severity Level
UNKNOWN
Published Date
Oct 6, 2026
Last Modified
Oct 6, 2026
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation yet
EPSS Score (30-Day)
0.21%Probability
Root Weakness (CWE)
N/A

Affected & Patched Versions

Affected Versions
Not provided by NVD for this CVE.
Patched Versions
Not provided by NVD for this CVE.
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📈EPSS Spike Alerts — Catch rising risk before it peaks.
🎯Custom EPSS/CVSS — Filter noise, focus on risk.
🛡️Exploit Intel — A 2nd confirmed-exploit signal beyond KEV.
🐙GitHub Issues — Auto-tracked, no duplicates.
📬Weekly Digest — One clean summary, not inbox spam.
🏷️Watchlist Groups — Tag alerts by team (Infra/AppSec/SOC).
💬Webhooks — Slack & Teams integration.
🔀Smart Routing — Critical alerts to one channel, rest to another.
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