CVE-2025-38453

io_uring/msg_ring: ensure io_kiocb freeing is deferred for RCU

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: July 25, 2025 at 03:27 PM UTC
Updated: August 5, 2026 at 12:44 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: io_uring/msg_ring: ensure io_kiocb freeing is deferred for RCU syzbot reports that defer/local task_work adding via msg_ring can hit a request that has been freed: CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 19356 Comm: iou-wrk-19354 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc4-syzkaller-00108-g17bbde2e1716 #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/07/2025 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x189/0x250 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:408 [inline] print_report+0xd2/0x2b0 mm/kasan/report.c:521 kasan_report+0x118/0x150 mm/kasan/report.c:634 io_req_local_work_add io_uring/io_uring.c:1184 [inline] __io_req_task_work_add+0x589/0x950 io_uring/io_uring.c:1252 io_msg_remote_post io_uring/msg_ring.c:103 [inline] io_msg_data_remote io_uring/msg_ring.c:133 [inline] __io_msg_ring_data+0x820/0xaa0 io_uring/msg_ring.c:151 io_msg_ring_data io_uring/msg_ring.c:173 [inline] io_msg_ring+0x134/0xa00 io_uring/msg_ring.c:314 __io_issue_sqe+0x17e/0x4b0 io_uring/io_uring.c:1739 io_issue_sqe+0x165/0xfd0 io_uring/io_uring.c:1762 io_wq_submit_work+0x6e9/0xb90 io_uring/io_uring.c:1874 io_worker_handle_work+0x7cd/0x1180 io_uring/io-wq.c:642 io_wq_worker+0x42f/0xeb0 io_uring/io-wq.c:696 ret_from_fork+0x3fc/0x770 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:148 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245 </TASK> which is supposed to be safe with how requests are allocated. But msg ring requests alloc and free on their own, and hence must defer freeing to a sane time. Add an rcu_head and use kfree_rcu() in both spots where requests are freed. Only the one in io_msg_tw_complete() is strictly required as it has been visible on the other ring, but use it consistently in the other spot as well. This should not cause any other issues outside of KASAN rightfully complaining about it.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

6.11 ≤ v < 6.12.466.11 ≤ v < 6.15.76.11 ≤ v < 6.166.13 ≤ v < 6.15.76.16 rc16.16 rc26.16 rc36.16 rc46.16 rc5617bb500bfabf8447062f1e1edde92ed2b638f1
Vendor states this is fixed in 094ba14a471cc6c68078c7ad488539eaf32c2277 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in e5b3432f4a6b418b8bd8fc91f38efbf17a77167a (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in fc582cd26e888b0652bc1494f252329453fd3b23 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.11 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.46 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.15.7 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.16 (unaffected)

References (3)

Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/094ba14a471cc6c68078c7ad488539eaf32c2277
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e5b3432f4a6b418b8bd8fc91f38efbf17a77167a
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fc582cd26e888b0652bc1494f252329453fd3b23

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
NVD-CWE-noinfo

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