Bug 2460669 (CVE-2026-31469)

Summary: CVE-2026-31469 kernel: virtio_net: Fix UAF on dst_ops when IFF_XMIT_DST_RELEASE is cleared and napi_tx is false
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's virtio_net driver. A local user can trigger a Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability by configuring the driver with specific network settings and then destroying the network namespace while data packets are still being transmitted. This premature freeing of network resources, specifically the dst_ops structure, can lead to a kernel paging request, resulting in a system crash and a Denial of Service (DoS).
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-04-22 15:04:21 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

virtio_net: Fix UAF on dst_ops when IFF_XMIT_DST_RELEASE is cleared and napi_tx is false

A UAF issue occurs when the virtio_net driver is configured with napi_tx=N
and the device's IFF_XMIT_DST_RELEASE flag is cleared
(e.g., during the configuration of tc route filter rules).

When IFF_XMIT_DST_RELEASE is removed from the net_device, the network stack
expects the driver to hold the reference to skb->dst until the packet
is fully transmitted and freed. In virtio_net with napi_tx=N,
skbs may remain in the virtio transmit ring for an extended period.

If the network namespace is destroyed while these skbs are still pending,
the corresponding dst_ops structure has freed. When a subsequent packet
is transmitted, free_old_xmit() is triggered to clean up old skbs.
It then calls dst_release() on the skb associated with the stale dst_entry.
Since the dst_ops (referenced by the dst_entry) has already been freed,
a UAF kernel paging request occurs.

fix it by adds skb_dst_drop(skb) in start_xmit to explicitly release
the dst reference before the skb is queued in virtio_net.

Call Trace:
 Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ffff80007e150000
 CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 6236 Comm: ping Kdump: loaded Not tainted 7.0.0-rc1+ #6 PREEMPT
  ...
  percpu_counter_add_batch+0x3c/0x158 lib/percpu_counter.c:98 (P)
  dst_release+0xe0/0x110  net/core/dst.c:177
  skb_release_head_state+0xe8/0x108 net/core/skbuff.c:1177
  sk_skb_reason_drop+0x54/0x2d8 net/core/skbuff.c:1255
  dev_kfree_skb_any_reason+0x64/0x78 net/core/dev.c:3469
  napi_consume_skb+0x1c4/0x3a0 net/core/skbuff.c:1527
  __free_old_xmit+0x164/0x230  drivers/net/virtio_net.c:611 [virtio_net]
  free_old_xmit drivers/net/virtio_net.c:1081 [virtio_net]
  start_xmit+0x7c/0x530 drivers/net/virtio_net.c:3329 [virtio_net]
  ...

Reproduction Steps:
NETDEV="enp3s0"

config_qdisc_route_filter() {
    tc qdisc del dev $NETDEV root
    tc qdisc add dev $NETDEV root handle 1: prio
    tc filter add dev $NETDEV parent 1:0 \
	protocol ip prio 100 route to 100 flowid 1:1
    ip route add 192.168.1.100/32 dev $NETDEV realm 100
}

test_ns() {
    ip netns add testns
    ip link set $NETDEV netns testns
    ip netns exec testns ifconfig $NETDEV  10.0.32.46/24
    ip netns exec testns ping -c 1 10.0.32.1
    ip netns del testns
}

config_qdisc_route_filter

test_ns
sleep 2
test_ns