Bug 2492393 (CVE-2026-52982)

Summary: CVE-2026-52982 kernel: net: usb: rtl8150: fix use-after-free in rtl8150_start_xmit()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
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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 USB network driver for Realtek RTL8150 devices. A race condition exists in the `rtl8150_start_xmit()` function, where a network packet's data buffer can be released prematurely. This can lead to a 'use-after-free' vulnerability, allowing the system to attempt to read from memory that has already been freed. Such an issue can result in system instability, crashes, or potentially the disclosure of sensitive information.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-06-24 18:09:37 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: usb: rtl8150: fix use-after-free in rtl8150_start_xmit()

syzbot reported a KASAN slab-use-after-free read in rtl8150_start_xmit()
when accessing skb->len for tx statistics after usb_submit_urb() has
been called:

  BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in rtl8150_start_xmit+0x71f/0x760
    drivers/net/usb/rtl8150.c:712
  Read of size 4 at addr ffff88810eb7a930 by task kworker/0:4/5226

The URB completion handler write_bulk_callback() frees the skb via
dev_kfree_skb_irq(dev->tx_skb). The URB may complete on another CPU
in softirq context before usb_submit_urb() returns in the submitter,
so by the time the submitter reads skb->len the skb has already been
queued to the per-CPU completion_queue and freed by net_tx_action():

  CPU A (xmit)                      CPU B (USB completion softirq)
  ------------                      ------------------------------
  dev->tx_skb = skb;
  usb_submit_urb()      --+
                          |-------> write_bulk_callback()
                          |           dev_kfree_skb_irq(dev->tx_skb)
                          |         net_tx_action()
                          |           napi_skb_cache_put()   <-- free
  netdev->stats.tx_bytes  |
    += skb->len;          <-- UAF read

Fix it by caching skb->len before submitting the URB and using the
cached value when updating the tx_bytes counter.

The pre-existing tx_bytes semantics are preserved: the counter tracks
the original frame length (skb->len), not the ETH_ZLEN/USB-alignment
padded "count" value that is handed to the device.  Changing that
would be a user-visible accounting change and is out of scope for
this UAF fix.