Bug 2481930 (CVE-2026-45918)

Summary: CVE-2026-45918 kernel: ovpn: tcp - don't deref NULL sk_socket member after tcp_close()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's handling of OpenVPN (Open Virtual Private Network) TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) connections. A race condition can occur when a userspace process closes a socket while a peer is in the kernel's release list. This can lead to a null pointer dereference when the kernel attempts to detach from the socket, causing a system crash and resulting in 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 2026-05-27 15:02:54 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ovpn: tcp - don't deref NULL sk_socket member after tcp_close()

When deleting a peer in case of keepalive expiration, the peer is
removed from the OpenVPN hashtable and is temporary inserted in a
"release list" for further processing.

This happens in:
ovpn_peer_keepalive_work()
  unlock_ovpn(release_list)

This processing includes detaching from the socket being used to
talk to this peer, by restoring its original proto and socket
ops/callbacks.

In case of TCP it may happen that, while the peer is sitting in
the release list, userspace decides to close the socket.
This will result in a concurrent execution of:

tcp_close(sk)
  __tcp_close(sk)
    sock_orphan(sk)
      sk_set_socket(sk, NULL)

The last function call will set sk->sk_socket to NULL.

When the releasing routine is resumed, ovpn_tcp_socket_detach()
will attempt to dereference sk->sk_socket to restore its original
ops member. This operation will crash due to sk->sk_socket being NULL.

Fix this race condition by testing-and-accessing
sk->sk_socket atomically under sk->sk_callback_lock.