Linux Kernel up to 6.6.87/6.12.24/6.14.3/6.15-rc2 dsa_tree_setup use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.87/6.12.24/6.14.3/6.15-rc2. It has been classified as critical. The affected element is the function dsa_tree_setup. This manipulation causes use after free. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-37786. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.87/6.12.24/6.14.3/6.15-rc2. Affected by this vulnerability is the function dsa_tree_setup. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: dsa: free routing table on probe failure If complete = true in dsa_tree_setup(), it means that we are the last switch of the tree which is successfully probing, and we should be setting up all switches from our probe path. After "complete" becomes true, dsa_tree_setup_cpu_ports() or any subsequent function may fail. If that happens, the entire tree setup is in limbo: the first N-1 switches have successfully finished probing (doing nothing but having allocated persistent memory in the tree's dst->ports, and maybe dst->rtable), and switch N failed to probe, ending the tree setup process before anything is tangible from the user's PoV. If switch N fails to probe, its memory (ports) will be freed and removed from dst->ports. However, the dst->rtable elements pointing to its ports, as created by dsa_link_touch(), will remain there, and will lead to use-after-free if dereferenced. If dsa_tree_setup_switches() returns -EPROBE_DEFER, which is entirely possible because that is where ds->ops->setup() is, we get a kasan report like this: ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in mv88e6xxx_setup_upstream_port+0x240/0x568 Read of size 8 at addr ffff000004f56020 by task kworker/u8:3/42 Call trace: __asan_report_load8_noabort+0x20/0x30 mv88e6xxx_setup_upstream_port+0x240/0x568 mv88e6xxx_setup+0xebc/0x1eb0 dsa_register_switch+0x1af4/0x2ae0 mv88e6xxx_register_switch+0x1b8/0x2a8 mv88e6xxx_probe+0xc4c/0xf60 mdio_probe+0x78/0xb8 really_probe+0x2b8/0x5a8 __driver_probe_device+0x164/0x298 driver_probe_device+0x78/0x258 __device_attach_driver+0x274/0x350 Allocated by task 42: __kasan_kmalloc+0x84/0xa0 __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x298/0x490 dsa_switch_touch_ports+0x174/0x3d8 dsa_register_switch+0x800/0x2ae0 mv88e6xxx_register_switch+0x1b8/0x2a8 mv88e6xxx_probe+0xc4c/0xf60 mdio_probe+0x78/0xb8 really_probe+0x2b8/0x5a8 __driver_probe_device+0x164/0x298 driver_probe_device+0x78/0x258 __device_attach_driver+0x274/0x350 Freed by task 42: __kasan_slab_free+0x48/0x68 kfree+0x138/0x418 dsa_register_switch+0x2694/0x2ae0 mv88e6xxx_register_switch+0x1b8/0x2a8 mv88e6xxx_probe+0xc4c/0xf60 mdio_probe+0x78/0xb8 really_probe+0x2b8/0x5a8 __driver_probe_device+0x164/0x298 driver_probe_device+0x78/0x258 __device_attach_driver+0x274/0x350 The simplest way to fix the bug is to delete the routing table in its entirety. dsa_tree_setup_routing_table() has no problem in regenerating it even if we deleted links between ports other than those of switch N, because dsa_link_touch() first checks whether the port pair already exists in dst->rtable, allocating if not. The deletion of the routing table in its entirety already exists in dsa_tree_teardown(), so refactor that into a function that can also be called from the tree setup error path. In my analysis of the commit to blame, it is the one which added dsa_link elements to dst->rtable. Prior to that, each switch had its own ds->rtable which is freed when the switch fails to probe. But the tree is potentially persistent memory.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-37786 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation appears to be easy. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 03/16/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 240657 (Ubuntu 25.04 : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-7594-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.88, 6.12.25, 6.14.4 or 6.15-rc3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch fb12b460ec46c9efad98de6d9ba349691db51dc7/5c8066fbdb9653c6e9a224bdcd8f9c91a484f0de/a038f5f15af455dfe35bc68549e02b950978700a/8bf108d7161ffc6880ad13a0cc109de3cf631727 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (240657), EUVD (EUVD-2025-13037) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0922). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM DataPower Gateway
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.6.0
• 6.6.1
• 6.6.2
• 6.6.3
• 6.6.4
• 6.6.5
• 6.6.6
• 6.6.7
• 6.6.8
• 6.6.9
• 6.6.10
• 6.6.11
• 6.6.12
• 6.6.13
• 6.6.14
• 6.6.15
• 6.6.16
• 6.6.17
• 6.6.18
• 6.6.19
• 6.6.20
• 6.6.21
• 6.6.22
• 6.6.23
• 6.6.24
• 6.6.25
• 6.6.26
• 6.6.27
• 6.6.28
• 6.6.29
• 6.6.30
• 6.6.31
• 6.6.32
• 6.6.33
• 6.6.34
• 6.6.35
• 6.6.36
• 6.6.37
• 6.6.38
• 6.6.39
• 6.6.40
• 6.6.41
• 6.6.42
• 6.6.43
• 6.6.44
• 6.6.45
• 6.6.46
• 6.6.47
• 6.6.48
• 6.6.49
• 6.6.50
• 6.6.51
• 6.6.52
• 6.6.53
• 6.6.54
• 6.6.55
• 6.6.56
• 6.6.57
• 6.6.58
• 6.6.59
• 6.6.60
• 6.6.61
• 6.6.62
• 6.6.63
• 6.6.64
• 6.6.65
• 6.6.66
• 6.6.67
• 6.6.68
• 6.6.69
• 6.6.70
• 6.6.71
• 6.6.72
• 6.6.73
• 6.6.74
• 6.6.75
• 6.6.76
• 6.6.77
• 6.6.78
• 6.6.79
• 6.6.80
• 6.6.81
• 6.6.82
• 6.6.83
• 6.6.84
• 6.6.85
• 6.6.86
• 6.6.87
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.14.0
• 6.14.1
• 6.14.2
• 6.14.3
• 6.15-rc1
• 6.15-rc2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

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CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

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Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

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