Bug 2516389 (CVE-2026-72469)

Summary: CVE-2026-72469 kernel: xprtrdma: Fix ep kref imbalance on ADDR_CHANGE
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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 xprtrdma component of the Linux kernel. An attacker could potentially exploit a use-after-free vulnerability due to an improper handling of Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) connection events. Specifically, an address change event occurring before a connection is fully established can lead to an imbalance in reference counting, causing the system to attempt to use memory that has already been released. This could result in system instability or crashes.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:09:57 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

xprtrdma: Fix ep kref imbalance on ADDR_CHANGE

rpcrdma_cm_event_handler() falls through to the disconnected: label
on RDMA_CM_EVENT_ADDR_CHANGE and calls rpcrdma_ep_put() with no
matching get when the event arrives before RDMA_CM_EVENT_ESTABLISHED.
The kref then underflows during connect teardown and
rpcrdma_xprt_disconnect() operates on a freed ep.

Reference counts across a normal connection lifecycle:

    rpcrdma_ep_create()             kref_init     ->1
    rpcrdma_xprt_connect()          ep_get        ->2  (before post_recvs)
    RDMA_CM_EVENT_ESTABLISHED       ep_get        ->3
    RDMA_CM_EVENT_DISCONNECTED      ep_put        ->2
    rpcrdma_xprt_drain()            ep_put        ->1
    rpcrdma_xprt_disconnect() tail  ep_put        ->0  (ep_destroy)

The connect-time get in rpcrdma_xprt_connect(), taken just before
rpcrdma_post_recvs() "while there are outstanding Receives," is
balanced by rpcrdma_xprt_drain. ADDR_CHANGE before ESTABLISHED has
no get to consume, so its put drops the count to 1 and the drain
put then frees the ep while rpcrdma_xprt_disconnect() still holds a
pointer to it.

Fix by dispatching on the prior re_connect_status via xchg(): for
prev == 0 (pre-ESTABLISHED) wake the connect waiter and return with
no put; for prev == 1 call rpcrdma_force_disconnect() and return.
The case-1 arm relies on the subsequent RDMA_CM_EVENT_DISCONNECTED
event -- reliably delivered when rdma_disconnect() is called on a
still-connected cm_id -- to balance the ESTABLISHED get;
rpcrdma_xprt_drain() continues to balance only that connect-time
get. Any other prior value means teardown is already in flight.