ksmbd: fix use-after-free of conn->preauth_info in concurrent SMB2 NEGOTIATE
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: fix use-after-free of conn->preauth_info in concurrent SMB2 NEGOTIATE conn->preauth_info is shared connection state (struct preauth_integrity_info, kmalloc-96) that is allocated and freed by the SMB2 NEGOTIATE handler and read by the response send path. smb2_handle_negotiate() allocates conn->preauth_info, and on a deassemble_neg_contexts() failure kfrees it and sets it to NULL. Both the allocation and the free/NULL happen under ksmbd_conn_lock(conn) (the connection srv_mutex), which is held across the whole handler body. The response send path smb3_preauth_hash_rsp(), called from the send: block of __handle_ksmbd_work(), reads conn->preauth_info and dereferences conn->preauth_info->Preauth_HashValue (via ksmbd_gen_preauth_integrity_hash()) without taking conn_lock. When a client drives two SMB2 NEGOTIATE requests on the same connection, one worker can free conn->preauth_info on the failing-negotiate path while a concurrent send-path worker is reading it, producing a slab use-after-free read (KASAN-confirmed). The send-path read tested conn->preauth_info for NULL but raced with the free that occurs between the NULL check and the dereference, so the NULL guard alone does not close the window. Serialize the NEGOTIATE-branch read in smb3_preauth_hash_rsp() under ksmbd_conn_lock(conn) and re-check conn->preauth_info inside the lock. Because the negotiate handler holds conn_lock across its kfree + NULL assignment, a reader that also takes conn_lock either runs fully before the allocation or fully after the NULL store, and can never observe the freed-but-not-yet-NULLed pointer. ksmbd_gen_preauth_integrity_hash() takes no locks itself (it only computes a SHA-512 over the buffer), so no lock-ordering inversion is introduced, and conn_lock is a sleepable mutex which is safe on this send path (it already performs network I/O).
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 5.15.212, 5.19, 5.20
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, 7.2
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet |
Not affected: 4 products
- 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-2026-72422
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-2r52-5q5c-m3mp
References
Other 7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c7bef84740d1d57848c74f6f5b996606e43ea4fe
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d0a469122e7bf8338fec1949fb1e8e1290ed8caa
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7470511d085af1c7a043a60e53d52b512d5a10b1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/16a1ecf39c217e3d164bd32ef2a4f650abc067fa
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77bb0bbfcc4e777ca653174689e5e363f8ee63d1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1c89da3baa2b1f269178afa87dc30479b8535776
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0c054227479ed7e36ebccb3a558bc0ef698264f6
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Sources
- CVE-2026-72422 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-72422 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-2r52-5q5c-m3mp · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-72422 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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