CVE-2026-23427
Published: 03 April 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-23427 is a critical-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 11.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and CM-7 (Least Functionality).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Mandates timely identification, reporting, and correction of flaws such as the ksmbd use-after-free via kernel patching.
Restricts systems to least functionality by prohibiting or disabling unnecessary ksmbd SMB server capabilities, preventing exposure to replay operation exploits.
Deploys memory protection safeguards like randomization and isolation to mitigate exploitation of the use-after-free in ksmbd connection handling.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Remote unauthenticated exploitation of exposed ksmbd SMB server via crafted SMB2 operations directly matches T1190; UAF enables kernel-level compromise or DoS.
NVD Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: fix use-after-free in durable v2 replay of active file handles parse_durable_handle_context() unconditionally assigns dh_info->fp->conn to the current connection when handling a DURABLE_REQ_V2 context with SMB2_FLAGS_REPLAY_OPERATION. ksmbd_lookup_fd_cguid() does not filter…
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by fp->conn, so it returns file handles that are already actively connected. The unconditional overwrite replaces fp->conn, and when the overwriting connection is subsequently freed, __ksmbd_close_fd() dereferences the stale fp->conn via spin_lock(&fp->conn->llist_lock), causing a use-after-free. KASAN report: [ 7.349357] ================================================================== [ 7.349607] BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in _raw_spin_lock+0x75/0xe0 [ 7.349811] Write of size 4 at addr ffff8881056ac18c by task kworker/1:2/108 [ 7.350010] [ 7.350064] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 108 Comm: kworker/1:2 Not tainted 7.0.0-rc3+ #58 PREEMPTLAZY [ 7.350068] Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC v2 (i440FX + PIIX, arch_caps fix, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 7.350070] Workqueue: ksmbd-io handle_ksmbd_work [ 7.350083] Call Trace: [ 7.350087] <TASK> [ 7.350087] dump_stack_lvl+0x64/0x80 [ 7.350094] print_report+0xce/0x660 [ 7.350100] ? __pfx__raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x10/0x10 [ 7.350101] ? __pfx___mod_timer+0x10/0x10 [ 7.350106] ? _raw_spin_lock+0x75/0xe0 [ 7.350108] kasan_report+0xce/0x100 [ 7.350109] ? _raw_spin_lock+0x75/0xe0 [ 7.350114] kasan_check_range+0x105/0x1b0 [ 7.350116] _raw_spin_lock+0x75/0xe0 [ 7.350118] ? __pfx__raw_spin_lock+0x10/0x10 [ 7.350119] ? __call_rcu_common.constprop.0+0x25e/0x780 [ 7.350125] ? close_id_del_oplock+0x2cc/0x4e0 [ 7.350128] __ksmbd_close_fd+0x27f/0xaf0 [ 7.350131] ksmbd_close_fd+0x135/0x1b0 [ 7.350133] smb2_close+0xb19/0x15b0 [ 7.350142] ? __pfx_smb2_close+0x10/0x10 [ 7.350143] ? xas_load+0x18/0x270 [ 7.350146] ? _raw_spin_lock+0x84/0xe0 [ 7.350148] ? __pfx__raw_spin_lock+0x10/0x10 [ 7.350150] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0xe/0x30 [ 7.350151] ? ksmbd_smb2_check_message+0xeb2/0x24c0 [ 7.350153] ? ksmbd_tree_conn_lookup+0xcd/0xf0 [ 7.350154] handle_ksmbd_work+0x40f/0x1080 [ 7.350156] process_one_work+0x5fa/0xef0 [ 7.350162] ? assign_work+0x122/0x3e0 [ 7.350163] worker_thread+0x54b/0xf70 [ 7.350165] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [ 7.350166] kthread+0x346/0x470 [ 7.350170] ? recalc_sigpending+0x19b/0x230 [ 7.350176] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 7.350178] ret_from_fork+0x4fb/0x6c0 [ 7.350183] ? __pfx_ret_from_fork+0x10/0x10 [ 7.350185] ? __switch_to+0x36c/0xbe0 [ 7.350188] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 7.350190] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 7.350197] </TASK> [ 7.350197] [ 7.355160] Allocated by task 123: [ 7.355261] kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 [ 7.355373] kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 [ 7.355484] __kasan_kmalloc+0x8f/0xa0 [ 7.355593] ksmbd_conn_alloc+0x44/0x6d0 [ 7.355711] ksmbd_kthread_fn+0x243/0xd70 [ 7.355839] kthread+0x346/0x470 [ 7.355942] ret_from_fork+0x4fb/0x6c0 [ 7.356051] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 7.356164] [ 7.356214] Freed by task 134: [ 7.356305] kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 [ 7.356416] kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 [ 7.356527] kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x60 [ 7.356646] __kasan_slab_free+0x43/0x70 [ 7.356761] kfree+0x1ca/0x430 [ 7.356862] ksmbd_tcp_disconnect+0x59/0xe0 [ 7.356993] ksmbd_conn_handler_loop+0x77e/0xd40 [ 7.357138] kthread+0x346/0x470 [ 7.357240] ret_from_fork+0x4fb/0x6c0 [ 7.357350] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 7.357463] [ 7.357513] The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8881056ac000 [ 7.357513] which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1k of size 1024 [ 7.357857] The buggy address is located 396 bytes inside of [ 7.357857] freed 1024-byte region ---truncated---
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-23427 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's ksmbd module, which implements an SMB server. The issue arises in parse_durable_handle_context() during handling of a DURABLE_REQ_V2 context with SMB2_FLAGS_REPLAY_OPERATION. This function unconditionally assigns dh_info->fp->conn to the current connection, even though ksmbd_lookup_fd_cguid() returns file handles from other active connections without filtering by fp->conn. The overwrite of fp->conn leads to a use-after-free when the overwriting connection is freed and __ksmbd_close_fd() attempts to dereference the stale fp->conn via spin_lock(&fp->conn->llist_lock). The flaw was detected by KASAN in kernel 7.0.0-rc3, manifesting as a slab-use-after-free during ksmbd workqueue processing.
A remote, unauthenticated attacker with network access to a vulnerable ksmbd instance can exploit this by crafting SMB2 replay operations on durable file handles. Exploitation triggers the connection overwrite and subsequent free, leading to the use-after-free during file close operations. The vulnerability carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating potential for high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, such as kernel crashes or further compromise via the freed connection structure.
Mitigation requires updating to a patched Linux kernel version. Upstream fixes are available in stable kernel repository commits, including 568a25fd7bcdfb2790f7d42aa2a440dca4435c96, 9b0792c3eacf01e67f356d6ef9707b0ae5022419, a5828c14a9e3d5eeed0bcc0a58f0f3fbca0cdcb2, b0158d9d6f4ec5941e49a0b812735db2844f9975, and b425e4d0eb321a1116ddbf39636333181675d8f4.
Details
- CWE(s)