xfrm: move policy_bydst RCU sync from per-netns .exit to .pre_exit
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 without a fix
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: move policy_bydst RCU sync from per-netns .exit to .pre_exit The struct pernet_operations docstring in include/net/net_namespace.h explicitly warns against blocking RCU primitives in .exit handlers: Exit methods using blocking RCU primitives, such as synchronize_rcu(), should be implemented via exit_batch. [...] Please, avoid synchronize_rcu() at all, where it's possible. Note that a combination of pre_exit() and exit() can be used, since a synchronize_rcu() is guaranteed between the calls. xfrm_policy_fini() violates this: it calls synchronize_rcu() before freeing the policy_bydst hash tables (so no RCU reader is mid- traversal at free time), but runs from xfrm_net_ops.exit -- once per namespace -- so a cleanup_net() of N namespaces pays N full RCU grace periods serially. Use the documented pre_exit/exit split. Move the policy flush (and the workqueue drains it depends on) into a new .pre_exit handler; xfrm_policy_fini() then runs in .exit and frees the hash tables after the synchronize_rcu_expedited() that cleanup_net() guarantees between the two phases. Providing O(1) RCU grace periods per batch instead of O(N). Observed on Linux 6.18 with a workload doing unshare(CLONE_NEWNET) at ~13/sec sustained: cleanup_net() and the netns_wq rescuer kthread both stuck in xfrm_policy_fini()'s synchronize_rcu(), >300k struct net accumulated in the cleanup queue, Percpu in /proc/meminfo climbed to 130+ GB on 256-CPU hosts, and memcg OOMs followed. setup_net and __put_net counts were balanced, ruling out a refcount leak.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 6.12.83 to before 6.12.93; 6.18.24 to before 6.18.35; 6.1.191 to before 6.2; 6.6.136 to before 6.7; 6.19.14 to before 6.20 | 6.12.93, 6.18.35, 6.2, 6.7, 6.20 | Patch available | CNA |
| Linux | Linux | 7.0 and later | 6.12.93, 6.18.35, 7.0.12, 7.1 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 6.12.83 to before 6.12.93; 6.18.24 to before 6.18.35; 6.1.191 to before 6.2; 6.6.136 to before 6.7; 6.19.14 to before 6.20 Fixed in 6.12.93, 6.18.35, 6.2, 6.7, 6.20 Patch available CNA
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 7.0 and later Fixed in 6.12.93, 6.18.35, 7.0.12, 7.1 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.12.93, 6.18.35, 6.2, 6.7, 6.20
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.12.93, 6.18.35, 7.0.12, 7.1
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
Not affected: 4 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-64525
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-phmc-55j6-972r
- 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/[email protected] · CNA
References
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Sources
- CVE-2026-64525 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-64525 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-phmc-55j6-972r · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-64525 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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