Bug 2482184 (CVE-2026-45891)

Summary: CVE-2026-45891 kernel: net: hns3: fix double free issue for tx spare buffer
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 hns3 network driver. This double-free vulnerability occurs due to incorrect handling of the `tx_spare` buffer during ring parameter setup. If memory allocation fails in the error cleanup path, a stale pointer to backup memory is erroneously freed twice. This can be exploited by a local attacker, potentially leading to 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 2026-05-27 15:15:18 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: hns3: fix double free issue for tx spare buffer

In hns3_set_ringparam(), a temporary copy (tmp_rings) of the ring structure
is created for rollback. However, the tx_spare pointer in the original
ring handle is incorrectly left pointing to the old backup memory.

Later, if memory allocation fails in hns3_init_all_ring() during the setup,
the error path attempts to free all newly allocated rings. Since tx_spare
contains a stale (non-NULL) pointer from the backup, it is mistaken for
a newly allocated buffer and is erroneously freed, leading to a double-free
of the backup memory.

The root cause is that the tx_spare field was not cleared after its value
was saved in tmp_rings, leaving a dangling pointer.

Fix this by setting tx_spare to NULL in the original ring structure
when the creation of the new `tx_spare` fails. This ensures the
error cleanup path only frees genuinely newly allocated buffers.