CVE-2026-23428
Published: 03 April 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-23428 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 9.3th 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 CM-7 (Least Functionality) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Requires identification, reporting, and timely correction of the use-after-free flaw in the ksmbd kernel module via upstream patches.
Prohibits or restricts nonessential kernel SMB server functionality like ksmbd to eliminate exposure to compound request processing vulnerabilities.
Employs memory protection mechanisms such as non-executable stacks and address randomization to mitigate exploitation of the ksmbd use-after-free.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Remote unauthenticated RCE via crafted SMB2 requests to exposed ksmbd kernel service enables public-facing app exploitation (T1190), remote service exploitation (T1210), and kernel-level privilege escalation (T1068).
NVD Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: fix use-after-free of share_conf in compound request smb2_get_ksmbd_tcon() reuses work->tcon in compound requests without validating tcon->t_state. ksmbd_tree_conn_lookup() checks t_state == TREE_CONNECTED on the initial lookup path, but the compound…
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reuse path bypasses this check entirely. If a prior command in the compound (SMB2_TREE_DISCONNECT) sets t_state to TREE_DISCONNECTED and frees share_conf via ksmbd_share_config_put(), subsequent commands dereference the freed share_conf through work->tcon->share_conf. KASAN report: [ 4.144653] ================================================================== [ 4.145059] BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in smb2_write+0xc74/0xe70 [ 4.145415] Read of size 4 at addr ffff88810430c194 by task kworker/1:1/44 [ 4.145772] [ 4.145867] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 44 Comm: kworker/1:1 Not tainted 7.0.0-rc3+ #60 PREEMPTLAZY [ 4.145871] 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 [ 4.145875] Workqueue: ksmbd-io handle_ksmbd_work [ 4.145888] Call Trace: [ 4.145892] <TASK> [ 4.145894] dump_stack_lvl+0x64/0x80 [ 4.145910] print_report+0xce/0x660 [ 4.145919] ? __pfx__raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x10/0x10 [ 4.145928] ? smb2_write+0xc74/0xe70 [ 4.145931] kasan_report+0xce/0x100 [ 4.145934] ? smb2_write+0xc74/0xe70 [ 4.145937] smb2_write+0xc74/0xe70 [ 4.145939] ? __pfx_smb2_write+0x10/0x10 [ 4.145942] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0xe/0x30 [ 4.145945] ? ksmbd_smb2_check_message+0xeb2/0x24c0 [ 4.145948] ? smb2_tree_disconnect+0x31c/0x480 [ 4.145951] handle_ksmbd_work+0x40f/0x1080 [ 4.145953] process_one_work+0x5fa/0xef0 [ 4.145962] ? assign_work+0x122/0x3e0 [ 4.145964] worker_thread+0x54b/0xf70 [ 4.145967] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [ 4.145970] kthread+0x346/0x470 [ 4.145976] ? recalc_sigpending+0x19b/0x230 [ 4.145980] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 4.145984] ret_from_fork+0x4fb/0x6c0 [ 4.145992] ? __pfx_ret_from_fork+0x10/0x10 [ 4.145995] ? __switch_to+0x36c/0xbe0 [ 4.145999] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 4.146003] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 4.146013] </TASK> [ 4.146014] [ 4.149858] Allocated by task 44: [ 4.149953] kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 [ 4.150061] kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 [ 4.150169] __kasan_kmalloc+0x8f/0xa0 [ 4.150274] ksmbd_share_config_get+0x1dd/0xdd0 [ 4.150401] ksmbd_tree_conn_connect+0x7e/0x600 [ 4.150529] smb2_tree_connect+0x2e6/0x1000 [ 4.150645] handle_ksmbd_work+0x40f/0x1080 [ 4.150761] process_one_work+0x5fa/0xef0 [ 4.150873] worker_thread+0x54b/0xf70 [ 4.150978] kthread+0x346/0x470 [ 4.151071] ret_from_fork+0x4fb/0x6c0 [ 4.151176] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 4.151286] [ 4.151332] Freed by task 44: [ 4.151418] kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 [ 4.151526] kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 [ 4.151634] kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x60 [ 4.151751] __kasan_slab_free+0x43/0x70 [ 4.151861] kfree+0x1ca/0x430 [ 4.151952] __ksmbd_tree_conn_disconnect+0xc8/0x190 [ 4.152088] smb2_tree_disconnect+0x1cd/0x480 [ 4.152211] handle_ksmbd_work+0x40f/0x1080 [ 4.152326] process_one_work+0x5fa/0xef0 [ 4.152438] worker_thread+0x54b/0xf70 [ 4.152545] kthread+0x346/0x470 [ 4.152638] ret_from_fork+0x4fb/0x6c0 [ 4.152743] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 4.152853] [ 4.152900] The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff88810430c180 [ 4.152900] which belongs to the cache kmalloc-96 of size 96 [ 4.153226] The buggy address is located 20 bytes inside of [ 4.153226] freed 96-byte region [ffff88810430c180, ffff88810430c1e0) [ 4.153549] [ 4.153596] The buggy address belongs to the physical page: [ 4.153750] page: refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0xffff88810430ce80 pfn:0x10430c [ 4.154000] flags: 0x ---truncated---
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-23428 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the ksmbd module of the Linux kernel, which implements a kernel-based SMB server. The issue arises during the processing of compound SMB2 requests, where smb2_get_ksmbd_tcon() reuses the work->tcon structure without validating its t_state. Specifically, if an earlier command in the compound sequence, such as SMB2_TREE_DISCONNECT, sets t_state to TREE_DISCONNECTED and frees the associated share_conf via ksmbd_share_config_put(), subsequent commands dereference the now-freed share_conf through work->tcon->share_conf. This was detected by KASAN, with a slab-use-after-free reported in smb2_write() on kernel version 7.0.0-rc3.
Remote, unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low complexity and no user interaction, as indicated by its CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). By sending a crafted compound SMB2 request to a target system with ksmbd enabled, an attacker can trigger the use-after-free (CWE-416), potentially leading to kernel memory corruption, denial of service via crash, or arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges.
Mitigation requires applying upstream kernel patches, as detailed in the referenced stable commit fixes: https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7f7468fd2a7554cea91b7d430335a3dbf01dcc09, https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/806f13752652216db0c309392b4db3e64eeed4f2, https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a5929c2020ce54e1dcbd1078c0f30b8aaf73c105, https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c33615f995aee80657b9fdfbc4ee7f49c2bd733d, and https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c742b46a153d3ff95ff0825ab1950c87b9e14470. Security practitioners should update affected Linux kernels exposing ksmbd to clients.
Details
- CWE(s)