Copyright © 2012 Red Hat, Inc. All rights reserved. Moderate 2026-08-22T00:00:00 kernel: net/x25: fix use-after-free of the socket by its timers 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H CWE-825

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/x25: fix use-after-free of the socket by its timers The x25 timers are armed with mod_timer() and cancelled with timer_delete(), so a pending timer holds no reference on the socket and a cancel does not wait for a callback already running on another CPU. x25_heartbeat_expiry() also rearms unconditionally, so it can reinstall sk->sk_timer after __x25_destroy_socket() has passed its cancel point. The following __sock_put() frees the socket while the timer is still queued, and the next expiry uses freed memory. KASAN reports a slab-use-after-free on the kmalloc-2k object freed by close(). timer_delete_sync() cannot be used here: x25_heartbeat_expiry() and x25_timer_expiry() both reach the cancels from inside the timer they would wait on, through __x25_destroy_socket() and x25_disconnect(). Arm the timers with sk_reset_timer() and cancel them with sk_stop_timer() so that an armed timer owns a reference, and release it in both expiry handlers. Rearm the heartbeat only while sk_hashed(sk) is still true, since __x25_destroy_socket() unlinks the socket before dropping it. Arm the deferred destroy timer the same way and drop its reference in x25_destroy_timer(). Reproduced on net with KASAN, with the heartbeat period shortened so the window recurs. With this patch the reproducer no longer triggers a report and /proc/net/x25 drains. Discovered by XBOW, triaged by Baul Lee <baul.lee@xbow.com>

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's x25 network protocol. The way timers are managed for x25 sockets can lead to a use-after-free vulnerability. Specifically, a timer might be rearmed after the associated socket has been deallocated, causing the system to access freed memory. This could potentially lead to a system crash or other unpredictable behavior.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Not affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Not affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Not affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Not affected kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Not affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Not affected kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Not affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Not affected kernel-rt https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-74628 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-74628 https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026082220-CVE-2026-74628-c08b@gregkh/T