CVE-2025-40064
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
smc: Fix use-after-free in __pnet_find_base_ndev().
syzbot reported use-after-free of net_device in __pnet_find_base_ndev(), which was called during connect(). [0]
smc_pnet_find_ism_resource() fetches sk_dst_get(sk)->dev and passes down to pnet_find_base_ndev(), where RTNL is held. Then, UAF happened at __pnet_find_base_ndev() when the dev is first used.
This means dev had already been freed before acquiring RTNL in pnet_find_base_ndev().
While dev is going away, dst->dev could be swapped with blackhole_netdev, and the dev's refcnt by dst will be released.
We must hold dev's refcnt before calling smc_pnet_find_ism_resource().
Also, smc_pnet_find_roce_resource() has the same problem.
Let's use __sk_dst_get() and dst_dev_rcu() in the two functions.
[0]: BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __pnet_find_base_ndev+0x1b1/0x1c0 net/smc/smc_pnet.c:926 Read of size 1 at addr ffff888036bac33a by task syz.0.3632/18609
CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 18609 Comm: syz.0.3632 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 08/18/2025 Call Trace:
dump_stack_lvl+0x189/0x250 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xca/0x240 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report+0x118/0x150 mm/kasan/report.c:595 __pnet_find_base_ndev+0x1b1/0x1c0 net/smc/smc_pnet.c:926 pnet_find_base_ndev net/smc/smc_pnet.c:946 [inline] smc_pnet_find_ism_by_pnetid net/smc/smc_pnet.c:1103 [inline] smc_pnet_find_ism_resource+0xef/0x390 net/smc/smc_pnet.c:1154 smc_find_ism_device net/smc/af_smc.c:1030 [inline] smc_find_proposal_devices net/smc/af_smc.c:1115 [inline] __smc_connect+0x372/0x1890 net/smc/af_smc.c:1545 smc_connect+0x877/0xd90 net/smc/af_smc.c:1715 __sys_connect_file net/socket.c:2086 [inline] __sys_connect+0x313/0x440 net/socket.c:2105 __do_sys_connect net/socket.c:2111 [inline] __se_sys_connect net/socket.c:2108 [inline] __x64_sys_connect+0x7a/0x90 net/socket.c:2108 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xfa/0x3b0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7f47cbf8eba9 Code: ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 a8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007f47ccdb1038 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002a RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f47cc1d5fa0 RCX: 00007f47cbf8eba9 RDX: 0000000000000010 RSI: 0000200000000280 RDI: 000000000000000b RBP: 00007f47cc011e19 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007f47cc1d6038 R14: 00007f47cc1d5fa0 R15: 00007ffc512f8aa8
The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page: refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0xffff888036bacd00 pfn:0x36bac flags: 0xfff00000000000(node=0|zone=1|lastcpupid=0x7ff) raw: 00fff00000000000 ffffea0001243d08 ffff8880b863fdc0 0000000000000000 raw: ffff888036bacd00 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected page_owner tracks the page as freed page last allocated via order 2, migratetype Unmovable, gfp_mask 0x446dc0(GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT|__GFP_ZERO|__GFP_NOWARN|__GFP_RETRY_MAYFAIL|__GFP_COMP), pid 16741, tgid 16741 (syz-executor), ts 343313197788, free_ts 380670750466 set_page_owner include/linux/page_owner.h:32 [inline] post_alloc_hook+0x240/0x2a0 mm/page_alloc.c:1851 prep_new_page mm/page_alloc.c:1859 [inline] get_page_from_freelist+0x21e4/0x22c0 mm/page_alloc.c:3858 __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x181/0x370 mm/page_alloc.c:5148 alloc_pages_mpol+0x232/0x4a0 mm/mempolicy.c:2416 ___kmalloc_large_node+0x5f/0x1b0 mm/slub.c:4317 __kmalloc_large_node_noprof+0x18/0x90 mm/slub.c:4348 __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:4364 [inline] __kvmalloc_node ---truncated---
AI Insight
LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.
A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's SMC subsystem during connect() could allow a local attacker to cause a system crash.
Vulnerability
Details
A use-after-free vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's SMC (Shared Memory Communications) subsystem. The functions smc_pnet_find_ism_resource() and smc_pnet_find_roce_resource() fetch a net_device from a destination cache entry (dst->dev) without properly incrementing the device's reference count. This allows the device to be freed while it is still being accessed, leading to a use-after-free condition in __pnet_find_base_ndev() [1].
Exploitation
The vulnerability can be triggered during a connect() call on an SMC socket. The attacker must be able to create an SMC socket and initiate a connection, which is possible from unprivileged user space. The race condition occurs when the network device is removed or changed concurrently with the connect operation. No special network position is required; local access is sufficient.
Impact
A successful exploit could cause a system crash, as demonstrated by the KASAN report showing a read of freed memory. In a worst-case scenario, an attacker could leverage the use-after-free to achieve arbitrary code execution or privilege escalation, though the primary risk is denial of service.
Mitigation
The fix has been applied to the Linux kernel stable tree. The patch replaces the unsafe device access with __sk_dst_get() and dst_dev_rcu() to ensure proper reference counting [1]. Users should update to a patched kernel version.
AI Insight generated on May 19, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.
Affected products
1Patches
2233927b645cb3d3466878afdVulnerability mechanics
Generated on May 9, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.
References
2News mentions
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