Copyright © 2012 Red Hat, Inc. All rights reserved. Important 2026-08-15T00:00:00 kernel: ipv4: igmp: Fix potential UAF in igmp_gq_start_timer() 7.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H CWE-825

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv4: igmp: Fix potential UAF in igmp_gq_start_timer() A race condition exists between device teardown (inetdev_destroy) and incoming IGMP query processing (igmp_rcv), leading to a Use-After-Free in the IGMP timer callback. During device destruction, inetdev_destroy() drops the primary reference to in_device, which can drop its refcount to 0. The actual freeing of in_device memory is deferred via RCU (using call_rcu()). Concurrently, igmp_rcv() runs under RCU read lock and obtains the in_device pointer. Because the memory is RCU-protected, CPU-0 can safely dereference in_device even if its refcount has hit 0. However, if CPU-0 calls igmp_gq_start_timer() and re-arms the timer, it attempts to acquire a reference using in_dev_hold(). This increments the refcount from 0 to 1, triggering a "refcount_t: addition on 0" warning. Since the in_device memory is still scheduled to be freed after the RCU grace period (as the free callback does not check the refcount again), the device is freed while the timer is still armed. When the timer expires, it accesses the freed memory, causing a kernel panic. Fix this by using refcount_inc_not_zero() (via a new helper in_dev_hold_safe()) to prevent acquiring a reference if the device is already being destroyed. If the refcount is 0, we do not arm the timer. A similar issue in IPv6 MLD is fixed in a subsequent patch.

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. A race condition exists between network device teardown and Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) query processing. This can lead to a Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability in the `igmp_gq_start_timer()` function, which could allow an attacker to trigger a kernel panic and cause a Denial of Service (DoS).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Under investigation kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Affected kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Affected kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Affected kernel-rt https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-72323 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72323 https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081506-CVE-2026-72323-b79f@gregkh/T