CVE-2026-68138

net/sched: serialize qdisc_rtab_list against concurrent get/put

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: August 10, 2026 at 11:59 AM UTC
Updated: October 19, 2026 at 09:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: serialize qdisc_rtab_list against concurrent get/put qdisc_get_rtab() and qdisc_put_rtab() mutate the process-global singly linked list qdisc_rtab_list and a plain non-atomic 'int refcnt' with no lock. This was only safe because every caller historically held the RTNL mutex, which serialized all rate-table lookups, inserts and frees. That invariant no longer holds. cls_flower sets TCF_PROTO_OPS_DOIT_UNLOCKED, so tc_new_tfilter() keeps rtnl_held == false for it and sets TCA_ACT_FLAGS_NO_RTNL. That flag propagates through tcf_exts_validate_ex() -> tcf_action_init() -> tcf_action_init_1() -> tcf_police_init(), which calls qdisc_get_rtab()/qdisc_put_rtab() with the RTNL mutex NOT held. Two RTM_NEWTFILTER requests on different CPUs, each adding a flower filter with a police action carrying the same rate, then race on qdisc_rtab_list and on the non-atomic refcnt, leading to a use-after-free / double-free of the kmalloc-2k struct qdisc_rate_table. qdisc_rtab_list is a single global (not per-netns), so the corrupted object is shared system-wide. BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in qdisc_put_rtab+0x12f/0x160 qdisc_put_rtab+0x12f/0x160 tcf_police_init+0xda9/0x1590 tcf_action_init_1+0x460/0x6b0 tcf_action_init+0x439/0xa40 tcf_exts_validate_ex+0x42d/0x550 fl_change+0xddd/0x7da0 tc_new_tfilter+0xaa7/0x2420 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x95e/0xe90 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-2k of size 2048 Protect qdisc_rtab_list and the refcount with a dedicated spinlock. The (sleeping, GFP_KERNEL) allocation in qdisc_get_rtab() is performed before taking the lock; if a concurrent inserter added an identical table in the meantime the freshly allocated one is freed under the lock, so no duplicate is leaked. qdisc_put_rtab() now decrements the refcount and unlinks under the same lock.

Affected

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

470502de5bdb1ed0def643a4458593a40b8f6b665.1
Vendor states this is fixed in 1b050d09dd1a0ddae83bf012cf4956b7a960235f (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4131dd0b6f67acddd616ed7c244e1d3eedd46e7b (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6e0241f6cbb149d926ee8efee2c734fea71452cf (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 8ddc2eb0d2da9c83f54f1e5720525b461b8480c4 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in d981098b76756ed71666a27518eeb69883657c43 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in f43ee0c0730d6191629b5ee1ceae27b1ebfdc047 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in f93c89392bd3b180b5b7abc6fdae8e3dd667a313 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in fb29e1b41052488ee3f2d115d4a870497ebd7f7d (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.1 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.266 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.217 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.184 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.105 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.18.46 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.153 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.1.6 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.2 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusRECEIVED
CWE
CWE-362

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