linux/net/xfrm
Michal Kosiorek 14acf9652e xfrm: defensively unhash xfrm_state lists in __xfrm_state_delete
KASAN reproduces a slab-use-after-free in __xfrm_state_delete()'s
hlist_del_rcu calls under syzkaller load on linux-6.12.y stable
(reproduced on 6.12.47, also reachable via the same code path on
torvalds/master and on the ipsec tree). Nine unique signatures cluster
in the xfrm_state lifecycle, the load-bearing one being:

  BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __hlist_del include/linux/list.h:990 [inline]
  BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in hlist_del_rcu include/linux/rculist.h:516 [inline]
  BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __xfrm_state_delete net/xfrm/xfrm_state.c
  Write of size 8 at addr ffff8881198bcb70 by task kworker/u8:9/435

  Workqueue: netns cleanup_net
  Call Trace:
   __hlist_del / hlist_del_rcu
   __xfrm_state_delete
   xfrm_state_delete
   xfrm_state_flush
   xfrm_state_fini
   ops_exit_list
   cleanup_net

The other observed signatures hit the same slab object from
__xfrm_state_lookup, xfrm_alloc_spi, __xfrm_state_insert and an OOB
write variant of __xfrm_state_delete, all on the byseq/byspi
hash chains.

__xfrm_state_delete() guards its byseq and byspi unhashes with
value-based predicates:

	if (x->km.seq)
		hlist_del_rcu(&x->byseq);
	if (x->id.spi)
		hlist_del_rcu(&x->byspi);

while everywhere else in the file (e.g. state_cache, state_cache_input)
the safer hlist_unhashed() check is used. xfrm_alloc_spi() sets
x->id.spi = newspi inside xfrm_state_lock and then immediately inserts
into byspi, but a path that observes x->id.spi != 0 outside of
xfrm_state_lock can still skip-or-hit the byspi unhash inconsistently
with whether x is actually on the list. The same holds for x->km.seq
versus byseq, and the bydst/bysrc unhashes have no predicate at all,
so a second __xfrm_state_delete() on the same object writes through
LIST_POISON pprev.

The defensive change here:

  - Use hlist_del_init_rcu() instead of hlist_del_rcu() on bydst,
    bysrc, byseq and byspi so a second deletion is a no-op rather
    than a write through LIST_POISON pprev. The byseq/byspi nodes
    are already initialised in xfrm_state_alloc().
  - Test hlist_unhashed() rather than the value predicate for
    byseq/byspi, so the unhash decision tracks list state rather than
    mutable scalar fields.

Empirical verification: applied this patch on top of v6.12.47, rebuilt,
and re-ran the same syzkaller harness for 1h16m on a previously-crashy
configuration that produced ~100 hits each of slab-use-after-free
Read in xfrm_alloc_spi / Read in __xfrm_state_lookup / Write in
__xfrm_state_delete. After the patch, 7.1M execs across 32 VMs at
~1550 exec/sec produced zero xfrm_state UAF/OOB hits. /proc/slabinfo
confirms the xfrm_state slab is actively allocated and freed during
the run (~143 KiB resident), so the fuzzer is still exercising those
code paths -- they just no longer crash.

Reproduction:

  - Linux 6.12.47 x86_64 + KASAN_GENERIC + KASAN_INLINE + KCOV
  - syzkaller @ 746545b8b1e4c3a128db8652b340d3df90ce61db
  - 32 QEMU/KVM VMs x 2 vCPU on AWS c5.metal bare metal
  - 9 unique signatures collected in ~9h, all within xfrm_state
    lifecycle

Fixes: fe9f1d8779 ("xfrm: add state hashtable keyed by seq")
Fixes: 7b4dc3600e ("[XFRM]: Do not add a state whose SPI is zero to the SPI hash.")
Reported-by: Michal Kosiorek <mkosiorek121@gmail.com>
Tested-by: Michal Kosiorek <mkosiorek121@gmail.com>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Michal Kosiorek <mkosiorek121@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Steffen Klassert <steffen.klassert@secunet.com>
2026-04-29 11:27:34 +02:00
..
espintcp.c net: convert remaining ipv6_stub users to direct function calls 2026-03-29 11:21:23 -07:00
Kconfig pfkey: Deprecate pfkey 2025-10-30 09:03:12 +01:00
Makefile xfrm: iptfs: add new iptfs xfrm mode impl 2024-12-05 10:01:35 +01:00
trace_iptfs.h xfrm: iptfs: add tracepoint functionality 2024-12-05 10:02:36 +01:00
xfrm_algo.c xfrm: Drop support for HMAC-RIPEMD-160 2026-04-07 10:47:58 +02:00
xfrm_compat.c xfrm: netlink: add config (netlink) options 2024-12-05 10:01:15 +01:00
xfrm_device.c xfrm: always flush state and policy upon NETDEV_UNREGISTER event 2026-02-09 10:28:05 +01:00
xfrm_hash.c
xfrm_hash.h xfrm: add state hashtable keyed by seq 2021-05-14 13:52:01 +02:00
xfrm_inout.h xfrm: move xfrm4_extract_header to common helper 2020-05-06 09:40:08 +02:00
xfrm_input.c xfrm: hold dev ref until after transport_finish NF_HOOK 2026-04-07 10:12:40 +02:00
xfrm_interface_bpf.c bpf: treewide: Annotate BPF kfuncs in BTF 2024-01-31 20:40:56 -08:00
xfrm_interface_core.c xfrm: interface: fix use-after-free after changing collect_md xfrm interface 2025-07-04 09:25:25 +02:00
xfrm_ipcomp.c Convert 'alloc_obj' family to use the new default GFP_KERNEL argument 2026-02-21 17:09:51 -08:00
xfrm_iptfs.c ipsec-2026-03-23 2026-03-24 15:16:28 +01:00
xfrm_nat_keepalive.c net: convert remaining ipv6_stub users to direct function calls 2026-03-29 11:21:23 -07:00
xfrm_output.c xfrm: Don't clobber inner headers when already set 2026-04-28 06:47:20 +02:00
xfrm_policy.c Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net 2026-04-09 13:20:59 -07:00
xfrm_proc.c xfrm: snmp: do not use SNMP_MIB_SENTINEL anymore 2025-09-08 18:06:21 -07:00
xfrm_replay.c ipsec-2025-01-27 2025-01-27 15:15:12 -08:00
xfrm_state_bpf.c bpf: xfrm: drop dead NULL check in bpf_xdp_get_xfrm_state() 2026-01-02 12:04:29 -08:00
xfrm_state.c xfrm: defensively unhash xfrm_state lists in __xfrm_state_delete 2026-04-29 11:27:34 +02:00
xfrm_sysctl.c net: Remove ctl_table sentinel elements from several networking subsystems 2024-05-03 13:29:42 +01:00
xfrm_user.c xfrm: provide message size for XFRM_MSG_MAPPING 2026-04-29 09:10:25 +02:00