CVE-2026-23450
Published: 03 April 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-23450 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 38.2th 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).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-23450 is a critical vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Shared Memory Communications (SMC) subsystem, specifically in the smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() function within net/smc. It manifests as a NULL pointer dereference and use-after-free (UAF) due to a race condition during concurrent closure of an SMC listen socket. The issue arises when the TCP receive path (in softirq context) accesses sk_user_data on the clcsock (TCP listening socket) to retrieve the smc_sock pointer, while smc_close_active() in process context nullifies sk_user_data under sk_callback_lock and frees the smc_sock via sock_put(). This affects Linux kernels with SMC enabled, as reported by Syzkaller fuzzing.
Remote attackers can exploit this vulnerability without privileges (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N) by sending TCP SYN packets to trigger the TCP three-way handshake paths, such as tcp_get_cookie_sock() or tcp_check_req(). A concurrent socket closure creates the race, leading to either a NULL dereference or UAF when accessing smc_sock fields like queued_smc_hs or ori_af_ops. With a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.8, successful exploitation can result in high-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability violations, including kernel panics observed in reproductions and potential for code execution via the UAF.
Kernel patches, available in stable trees via commits such as 1e4f873879e0, 1fab5ece76fb, 6d5e4538364b, cadf3da46c15, and f00fc26c8a06, mitigate the issue by employing RCU for safe access: setting SOCK_RCU_FREE on the SMC listen socket to defer freeing until after the RCU grace period, using rcu_read_lock() to protect sk_user_data reads, and refcount_inc_not_zero() on smc->sk.sk_refcnt to pin the smc_sock if valid. These lightweight measures avoid heavy locks like read_lock_bh, ensuring resilience against SYN floods. The fix was verified with mdelay-injected reproducers using smc_run, eliminating the crash.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-18700
Vulnerability details
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/smc: fix NULL dereference and UAF in smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() Syzkaller reported a panic in smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() [1]. smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() is called in the TCP receive path (softirq) via icsk_af_ops->syn_recv_sock on the clcsock (TCP…
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listening socket). It reads sk_user_data to get the smc_sock pointer. However, when the SMC listen socket is being closed concurrently, smc_close_active() sets clcsock->sk_user_data to NULL under sk_callback_lock, and then the smc_sock itself can be freed via sock_put() in smc_release(). This leads to two issues: 1) NULL pointer dereference: sk_user_data is NULL when accessed. 2) Use-after-free: sk_user_data is read as non-NULL, but the smc_sock is freed before its fields (e.g., queued_smc_hs, ori_af_ops) are accessed. The race window looks like this (the syzkaller crash [1] triggers via the SYN cookie path: tcp_get_cookie_sock() -> smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock(), but the normal tcp_check_req() path has the same race): CPU A (softirq) CPU B (process ctx) tcp_v4_rcv() TCP_NEW_SYN_RECV: sk = req->rsk_listener sock_hold(sk) /* No lock on listener */ smc_close_active(): write_lock_bh(cb_lock) sk_user_data = NULL write_unlock_bh(cb_lock) ... smc_clcsock_release() sock_put(smc->sk) x2 -> smc_sock freed! tcp_check_req() smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock(): smc = user_data(sk) -> NULL or dangling smc->queued_smc_hs -> crash! Note that the clcsock and smc_sock are two independent objects with separate refcounts. TCP stack holds a reference on the clcsock, which keeps it alive, but this does NOT prevent the smc_sock from being freed. Fix this by using RCU and refcount_inc_not_zero() to safely access smc_sock. Since smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() is called in the TCP three-way handshake path, taking read_lock_bh on sk_callback_lock is too heavy and would not survive a SYN flood attack. Using rcu_read_lock() is much more lightweight. - Set SOCK_RCU_FREE on the SMC listen socket so that smc_sock freeing is deferred until after the RCU grace period. This guarantees the memory is still valid when accessed inside rcu_read_lock(). - Use rcu_read_lock() to protect reading sk_user_data. - Use refcount_inc_not_zero(&smc->sk.sk_refcnt) to pin the smc_sock. If the refcount has already reached zero (close path completed), it returns false and we bail out safely. Note: smc_hs_congested() has a similar lockless read of sk_user_data without rcu_read_lock(), but it only checks for NULL and accesses the global smc_hs_wq, never dereferencing any smc_sock field, so it is not affected. Reproducer was verified with mdelay injection and smc_run, the issue no longer occurs with this patch applied. [1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=827ae2bfb3a3529333e9
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Remote unauthenticated network trigger (SYN packets) on exposed Linux kernel SMC paths directly enables remote exploitation of a public-facing service or remote service for RCE/DoS via UAF.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly addresses the CVE by requiring identification, reporting, and patching of the specific race condition causing NULL dereference and UAF in the Linux kernel SMC subsystem.
Disabling nonessential Shared Memory Communications (SMC) functionality removes the vulnerable code path in smc_tcp_syn_recv_sock() entirely.
Memory protection techniques such as ASLR and exploit mitigations reduce the exploitability of the use-after-free in smc_sock fields during the TCP SYN receive race.