Bug 2376060 (CVE-2025-38097) - CVE-2025-38097 kernel: espintcp: remove encap socket caching to avoid reference leak
Summary: CVE-2025-38097 kernel: espintcp: remove encap socket caching to avoid referen...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2025-38097
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
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Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-07-03 09:02 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2025-07-03 18:01 UTC (History)
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-07-03 09:02:56 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

espintcp: remove encap socket caching to avoid reference leak

The current scheme for caching the encap socket can lead to reference
leaks when we try to delete the netns.

The reference chain is: xfrm_state -> enacp_sk -> netns

Since the encap socket is a userspace socket, it holds a reference on
the netns. If we delete the espintcp state (through flush or
individual delete) before removing the netns, the reference on the
socket is dropped and the netns is correctly deleted. Otherwise, the
netns may not be reachable anymore (if all processes within the ns
have terminated), so we cannot delete the xfrm state to drop its
reference on the socket.

This patch results in a small (~2% in my tests) performance
regression.

A GC-type mechanism could be added for the socket cache, to clear
references if the state hasn't been used "recently", but it's a lot
more complex than just not caching the socket.

Comment 1 Avinash Hanwate 2025-07-03 17:51:57 UTC
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025070305-CVE-2025-38097-287c@gregkh/T


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