High [CVE-2026-72469] Fix ep kref imbalance on ADDR_CHANGE
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-72469 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xprtrdma: Fix ep kref imbalance on ADDR_CHANGE rpcrdma_cm_event_handler() falls through to the disconnected: label on RDMA_CM_EVENT_ADDR_CHANGE and calls rpcrdma_ep_put() with no matching get when the event arrives before RDMA_CM_EVENT_ESTABLISHED.
The kref then underflows during connect teardown and rpcrdma_xprt_disconnect() operates on a freed ep.
Reference counts across a normal connection lifecycle: rpcrdma_ep_create() kref_init ->1 rpcrdma_xprt_connect() ep_get ->2 (before post_recvs) RDMA_CM_EVENT_ESTABLISHED ep_get ->3 RDMA_CM_EVENT_DISCONNECTED ep_put ->2 rpcrdma_xprt_drain() ep_put ->1 rpcrdma_xprt_disconnect() tail ep_put ->0 (ep_destroy) The connect-time get in rpcrdma_xprt_connect(), taken just before rpcrdma_post_recvs() "while there are outstanding Receives," is balanced by rpcrdma_xprt_drain.
ADDR_CHANGE before ESTABLISHED has no get to consume, so its put drops the count to 1 and the drain put then frees the ep while rpcrdma_xprt_disconnect() still holds a pointer to it.
Fix by dispatching on the prior re_connect_status via xchg(): for prev == 0 (pre-ESTABLISHED) wake the connect waiter and return with no put; for prev == 1 call rpcrdma_force_disconnect() and return.
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 1 hour 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 1 hour 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 1 hour ago·verify at source
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