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TI-2026-31346 Aliases CVE-2026-43167GHSA-2fm8-9qc5-4mqx

xfrm: always flush state and policy upon NETDEV_UNREGISTER event

Priority LOW 24Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 3 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: always flush state and policy upon NETDEV_UNREGISTER event syzbot is reporting that "struct xfrm_state" refcount is leaking. unregister_netdevice: waiting for netdevsim0 to become free. Usage count = 2 ref_tracker: netdev@ffff888052f24618 has 1/1 users at __netdev_tracker_alloc include/linux/netdevice.h:4400 [inline] netdev_tracker_alloc include/linux/netdevice.h:4412 [inline] xfrm_dev_state_add+0x3a5/0x1080 net/xfrm/xfrm_device.c:316 xfrm_state_construct net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c:986 [inline] xfrm_add_sa+0x34ff/0x5fa0 net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c:1022 xfrm_user_rcv_msg+0x58e/0xc00 net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c:3507 netlink_rcv_skb+0x158/0x420 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2550 xfrm_netlink_rcv+0x71/0x90 net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c:3529 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1318 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x5aa/0x870 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1344 netlink_sendmsg+0x8c8/0xdd0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1894 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:727 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:742 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0xa5d/0xc30 net/socket.c:2592 ___sys_sendmsg+0x134/0x1d0 net/socket.c:2646 __sys_sendmsg+0x16d/0x220 net/socket.c:2678 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xcd/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f This is because commit d77e38e612a0 ("xfrm: Add an IPsec hardware offloading API") implemented xfrm_dev_unregister() as no-op despite xfrm_dev_state_add() from xfrm_state_construct() acquires a reference to "struct net_device". I guess that that commit expected that NETDEV_DOWN event is fired before NETDEV_UNREGISTER event fires, and also assumed that xfrm_dev_state_add() is called only if (dev->features & NETIF_F_HW_ESP) != 0. Sabrina Dubroca identified steps to reproduce the same symptoms as below. echo 0 > /sys/bus/netdevsim/new_device dev=$(ls -1 /sys/bus/netdevsim/devices/netdevsim0/net/) ip xfrm state add src 192.168.13.1 dst 192.168.13.2 proto esp \ spi 0x1000 mode tunnel aead 'rfc4106(gcm(aes))' $key 128 \ offload crypto dev $dev dir out ethtool -K $dev esp-hw-offload off echo 0 > /sys/bus/netdevsim/del_device Like these steps indicate, the NETIF_F_HW_ESP bit can be cleared after xfrm_dev_state_add() acquired a reference to "struct net_device". Also, xfrm_dev_state_add() does not check for the NETIF_F_HW_ESP bit when acquiring a reference to "struct net_device". Commit 03891f820c21 ("xfrm: handle NETDEV_UNREGISTER for xfrm device") re-introduced the NETDEV_UNREGISTER event to xfrm_dev_event(), but that commit for unknown reason chose to share xfrm_dev_down() between the NETDEV_DOWN event and the NETDEV_UNREGISTER event. I guess that that commit missed the behavior in the previous paragraph. Therefore, we need to re-introduce xfrm_dev_unregister() in order to release the reference to "struct net_device" by unconditionally flushing state and policy.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00123 2nd percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 6.1.191, 6.6.128, 6.12.75 +3Red Hat: 3 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux4.12 and later6.1.191, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.16, 6.19.6, 7.0Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 4.12 and later Fixed in 6.1.191, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.16, 6.19.6, 7.0 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 2

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*4.12 to before 6.6.128; 6.7 to before 6.12.75; 6.13 to before 6.18.16; 6.19 to before 6.19.6VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*7.0 rc1VulnerableLinux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 4.12 to before 6.6.128; 6.7 to before 6.12.75; 6.13 to before 6.18.16; 6.19 to before 6.19.6 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 7.0 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.191, 6.6.128, 6.12.75, 6.18.16, 6.19.6, 7.0

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Not affected: 2 products
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-43167
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-2fm8-9qc5-4mqx
  3. 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/[email protected], Linux/Linux@d4df5a7da376e35089b8b601a86ff8a4cf997e2f · CNA
  4. 2026-10-30 1 new reference · CNA
  5. 2026-11-06 CISA SSVC decision points changed

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
See all 15278 →

Sources