High [CVE-2026-72322] Fix potential UAF in MLD delayed work
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-72322 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
Aggregated and source-linked by VulniPulse. Data sources, validation and limitations.
VulniPulse record published Record updated
Android app · Google Play
Monitor future Red Hat Linux CVEs from your phone.
Choose a whole vendor or a precise platform, then receive matching security advisories by phone notification, email, or both. Coverage follows 34 official vendor sources and 160+ reviewed platform categories.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: mcast: Fix potential UAF in MLD delayed work A race condition exists between device teardown and incoming MLD query processing, leading to a Use-After-Free in the MLD delayed work.
During device destruction, the primary reference to inet6_dev is dropped, which can drop its refcount to 0. The actual freeing of inet6_dev memory is deferred via RCU.
Concurrently, the packet receive path runs under RCU read lock and obtains the inet6_dev pointer. Because the memory is RCU-protected, CPU-0 can safely dereference inet6_dev even if its refcount has hit 0.
However, if CPU-0 calls igmp6_event_query() and schedules delayed work, it attempts to acquire a reference using in6_dev_hold(). This increments the refcount from 0 to 1, triggering a "refcount_t: addition on 0" warning.
Since the inet6_dev memory is still scheduled to be freed after the RCU grace period, the device is freed while the work is still scheduled. When the work runs, it accesses the freed memory, causing a kernel panic.
Fix this by using refcount_inc_not_zero() (via a new helper in6_dev_hold_safe()) to prevent acquiring a reference if the device is already being destroyed. If the refcount is 0, we do not schedule the work.
This can lead to a Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability, where memory is accessed after it has been deallocated.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 22 days ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 22 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 22 days ago·verify at source
Discussion(0)
No comments yet. Share field notes, upgrade gotchas, or questions — verify against the vendor advisory before acting on community advice.
Sign in to join the discussion.