Bug 2502384 (CVE-2026-63918) - CVE-2026-63918 kernel: l2tp: use refcount_inc_not_zero in l2tp_session_get_by_ifname
Summary: CVE-2026-63918 kernel: l2tp: use refcount_inc_not_zero in l2tp_session_get_by...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-63918
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-07-19 16:05 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-07-21 21:14 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-19 16:05:10 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

l2tp: use refcount_inc_not_zero in l2tp_session_get_by_ifname

A reader in l2tp_session_get_by_ifname() can return a pointer to a
session whose refcount has reached zero. The getter takes its
reference with plain refcount_inc(), but every other session getter
in the same file (l2tp_v2_session_get, l2tp_v3_session_get, and the
corresponding _get_next variants) uses refcount_inc_not_zero()
because the IDR/RCU lookup can race with refcount_dec_and_test() ->
l2tp_session_free() -> kfree_rcu(). The ifname getter is the only
outlier; the inconsistency was raised on-list after 979c017803c4
("l2tp: use list_del_rcu in l2tp_session_unhash").

A reader inside rcu_read_lock_bh() that matches session->ifname can
be preempted between the strcmp() and the refcount_inc(). If the
last reference drops on another CPU in that window, the reader's
refcount_inc() runs on a counter that has reached zero. refcount_t
catches the addition-on-zero, prints "refcount_t: addition on 0;
use-after-free", saturates the counter, and returns the saturated
pointer to the caller. Session memory is held live by the in-flight
RCU read section, but the kfree_rcu() callback queued from
l2tp_session_free() will free it once the grace period closes; a
caller that dereferences the returned session past that point hits
a slab-use-after-free. On PREEMPT_RT local_bh_disable() is a per-CPU
sleeping lock and the preemption window is real; on stock PREEMPT
kernels local_bh_disable() is a preempt_count increment that closes
the cross-CPU race in practice (see below).

Use refcount_inc_not_zero() and continue the list walk on failure,
matching the other session getters in the file. The ifname getter
is the only session getter in net/l2tp/ that still uses the bare
refcount_inc() pattern; this change restores file-internal
consistency. The success path is unchanged.


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