ipmi: Fix user refcount underflow in event delivery
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipmi: Fix user refcount underflow in event delivery ipmi_alloc_recv_msg(user) takes the temporary user reference owned by the receive message, and ipmi_free_recv_msg() drops it again. If event delivery fails after allocating receive messages for earlier users, handle_read_event_rsp() rolls those messages back with ipmi_free_recv_msg(). That rollback path still drops user->refcount explicitly after freeing each message. The extra put can free a user that remains linked on intf->users, so later event delivery may dereference a freed user or trip refcount_t's addition-on-zero warning when ipmi_alloc_recv_msg() tries to acquire another reference. Remove the stale explicit put and the now-dead user assignment. Keep the list_del() and ipmi_free_recv_msg() calls; they are the required rollback operations.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.2, 6.7, 6.13, 6.18
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.18.40, 7.1.5, 7.2
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 5 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-72042
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-vqpc-pm2x-2835
References
More Linux vulnerabilities
- 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-2021-02452 Incorrect authorization in Ubuntu linux kernel 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
Sources
- CVE-2026-72042 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-72042 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-vqpc-pm2x-2835 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-72042 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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