Bug 2546410 (CVE-2026-98369)

Summary: CVE-2026-98369 kernel: xfrm: add missing rcu_read_lock(), skb_dst_force() and dev_hold() for xfrm_trans_reinject()
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: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, 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 IPsec (xfrm) subsystem. This flaw can lead to a Denial of Service (DoS) due to missing synchronization locks and device references when reinjecting transport-mode network packets through workqueues. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending network traffic processed by IPsec, causing the kernel to access invalid memory structures and resulting in a system crash.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-06 09:16:39 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

xfrm: add missing rcu_read_lock(), skb_dst_force() and dev_hold() for xfrm_trans_reinject()

syzbot reported a suspicious RCU usage warning in ip6_pkt_drop():

  WARNING: suspicious RCU usage in ip6_pkt_drop
  include/net/addrconf.h:389 suspicious rcu_dereference_check() usage!

  Call Trace:
   __in6_dev_get_safely include/net/addrconf.h:389 [inline]
   ip6_pkt_drop+0x596/0x610 net/ipv6/route.c:4620
   ip6_pkt_discard+0x1c/0x30 net/ipv6/route.c:4651
   xfrm_trans_reinject+0x324/0x630 net/xfrm/xfrm_input.c:806
   process_one_work kernel/workqueue.c:3322 [inline]
   process_scheduled_works+0xa8e/0x14e0 kernel/workqueue.c:3405
   worker_thread+0xa47/0xfb0 kernel/workqueue.c:3486

When commit 4f4920669d21 ("xfrm: Reinject transport-mode packets through
workqueue") converted xfrm_trans_reinject from a tasklet to a workqueue,
the reinjection loop ceased running in softirq context. Workqueue workers
run in process context where local_bh_disable() does not enter an RCU
read-side critical section under CONFIG_PREEMPT_RCU.

Because finish callbacks (such as ip6_rcv_finish) expect to run under an
RCU read lock (performing route lookups, l3mdev lookups, and accessing
RCU-protected data structures), invoking them in workqueue context without
rcu_read_lock() triggers RCU lockdep warnings.

Furthermore, packets queued to the workqueue via xfrm_trans_queue_net()
may carry non-refcounted (noref) dst entries (e.g. from ip_route_input_noref).
Additionally, on netdevice unregistration, dst_dev_put() replaces dst->dev
with blackhole_netdev, so dst entries do not keep skb->dev alive while
queued in the workqueue.

Fix these issues by:
1. Calling skb_dst_force(skb) in xfrm_trans_queue_net() while still in the
   caller's RCU section to ensure dst is reference-counted before queuing.
2. Holding a reference on skb->dev via dev_hold()/dev_put() across workqueue
   deferral so skb->dev remains valid during finish() callback processing.
3. Acquiring rcu_read_lock() around the finish callback invocation loop in
   xfrm_trans_reinject().