CVE-2026-53259

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: anycast: insert aca into global hash under idev->lock syzbot reported a splat [1]: a slab-use-after-free in ipv6_chk_acast_addr(), which walks the global inet6_acaddr_lst[] hash under RCU and dereferences a struct ifacaddr6 that has already been freed while still linked in the hash, so a later reader walks into a dangling node. In __ipv6_dev_ac_inc() the aca is allocated with refcount 1, then aca_get() bumps it to 2 to keep it alive across the unlocked region. It is published to idev->ac_list under idev->lock, but ipv6_add_acaddr_hash() runs after write_unlock_bh(). A concurrent teardown (ipv6_ac_destroy_dev() from addrconf_ifdown(), under RTNL) can slip into that window: CPU0 __ipv6_dev_ac_inc CPU1 ipv6_ac_destroy_dev (RTNL) ------------------------------ ------------------------------------ aca_alloc() refcnt 1 aca_get() refcnt 2 write_lock_bh(idev->lock) add aca to ac_list write_unlock_bh(idev->lock) write_lock_bh(idev->lock) pull aca off ac_list write_unlock_bh(idev->lock) ipv6_del_acaddr_hash(aca) hlist_del_init_rcu() is a no-op, aca is not in the hash yet aca_put() refcnt 2->1 ipv6_add_acaddr_hash(aca) aca now inserted into the hash aca_put() refcnt 1->0 call_rcu(aca_free_rcu) -> kfree(aca) The hash removal becomes a no-op because the insertion has not happened yet, so once CPU0 inserts and drops the last reference, the aca is freed while still linked in inet6_acaddr_lst[], and readers dereference freed memory after the slab slot is reused. This window opened once RTNL stopped serializing the join path against device teardown. Move ipv6_add_acaddr_hash() inside the idev->lock section so the ac_list and hash insertions are atomic with respect to teardown: a racing remover now either misses the aca entirely or finds it in both lists. acaddr_hash_lock is now nested under idev->lock, which is acquired in softirq context, so switch all acaddr_hash_lock sites to spin_lock_bh() to avoid the irq lock inversion reported in [2]. [1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=a01df04303c131efbf3a [2] https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/6a194ef7.ba3b1513.1890b4.0000.GAE@google.com/

Predictions

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15be7e9fdbff831fb3e89b83cc337a4f85ad3310
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3a967c498baa976b11d4800dda224c507416e97c
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f723ccaff2fb72b71ae8a9fd283f0dee4d9ae7a3
• https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-53259