Bug 2516705 (CVE-2026-72317)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

SUNRPC: pin upper rpc_clnt across the TLS connect_worker

The TLS connect path has a use-after-free: nothing pins the
upper rpc_clnt across the delayed connect_worker. xs_connect()
stores task->tk_client in sock_xprt::clnt as a raw pointer
and queues the worker; for TLS-secured transports that worker
is xs_tcp_tls_setup_socket(), which reads several fields out
of the saved pointer (cl_timeout, cl_program, cl_prog,
cl_vers, cl_cred, cl_stats) to construct the args for the
inner handshake rpc_clnt.

The xprt does not reference the rpc_clnt; the rpc_clnt
references the xprt. xs_destroy() does cancel the
connect_worker, but it runs only when the xprt's refcount
drops to zero, which cannot happen until the rpc_clnt
releases its cl_xprt reference in rpc_free_client_work().
When a TLS handshake fails fatally (for example, an mTLS
mount whose client cert does not match the server), the
connecting task is woken with -EACCES and exits, the mount
caller invokes rpc_shutdown_client(), and the upper rpc_clnt
is freed before the queued connect_worker fires.
xs_tcp_tls_setup_socket() then dereferences the freed clnt,
producing the refcount_t underflow Michael Nemanov reported.

Take a reference on the upper rpc_clnt in xs_connect() for
TLS transports via a new rpc_hold_client() helper, and drop
it in the connect_worker's exit path with rpc_release_client().
The xprt_lock_connect() / xprt_unlock_connect() pairing
already serialises xs_connect() with xs_tcp_tls_setup_socket(),
so the take and release are balanced one-for-one.

The non-TLS connect worker (xs_tcp_setup_socket) never reads
sock_xprt::clnt, so leave that path alone and avoid the
clnt-holds-xprt-holds-clnt cycle that would otherwise prevent
xprt destruction.