Linux Kernel up to 7.0-rc4 clsact_init use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.129/6.12.77/6.18.19/6.19.9/7.0-rc4. Affected is the function clsact_init. This manipulation causes use after free. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-23413. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.129/6.12.77/6.18.19/6.19.9/7.0-rc4. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function clsact_init. 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: clsact: Fix use-after-free in init/destroy rollback asymmetry Fix a use-after-free in the clsact qdisc upon init/destroy rollback asymmetry. The latter is achieved by first fully initializing a clsact instance, and then in a second step having a replacement failure for the new clsact qdisc instance. clsact_init() initializes ingress first and then takes care of the egress part. This can fail midway, for example, via tcf_block_get_ext(). Upon failure, the kernel will trigger the clsact_destroy() callback. Commit 1cb6f0bae504 ("bpf: Fix too early release of tcx_entry") details the way how the transition is happening. If tcf_block_get_ext on the q->ingress_block ends up failing, we took the tcx_miniq_inc reference count on the ingress side, but not yet on the egress side. clsact_destroy() tests whether the {ingress,egress}_entry was non-NULL. However, even in midway failure on the replacement, both are in fact non-NULL with a valid egress_entry from the previous clsact instance. What we really need to test for is whether the qdisc instance-specific ingress or egress side previously got initialized. This adds a small helper for checking the miniq initialization called mini_qdisc_pair_inited, and utilizes that upon clsact_destroy() in order to fix the use-after-free scenario. Convert the ingress_destroy() side as well so both are consistent to each other.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-23413 since 01/13/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 06/27/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 323212 (EulerOS 2.0 SP15 : kernel (EulerOS-SA-2026-2485)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.130, 6.12.78, 6.18.20, 6.19.10 or 7.0-rc5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch a73d95b57bf9faebdfed591bcb7ed9292062a84c/37bef86e5428d59f70a4da82b80f9a8f252fecbe/4c9af67f99aa3e51b522c54968ab3ac8272be41c/0509b762bc5e8ea7b8391130730c6d8502fc6e69/a0671125d4f55e1e98d9bde8a0b671941987e208 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 (323212), EUVD (EUVD-2026-18192) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0985). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Microsoft Azure Linux

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.6.129
• 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
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.12.67
• 6.12.68
• 6.12.69
• 6.12.70
• 6.12.71
• 6.12.72
• 6.12.73
• 6.12.74
• 6.12.75
• 6.12.76
• 6.12.77
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 6.19.7
• 6.19.8
• 6.19.9
• 7.0-rc1
• 7.0-rc2
• 7.0-rc3
• 7.0-rc4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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