Linux Kernel up to 6.12.74/6.18.13/6.19.3 iWARP Mode cm_event_handler use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.74/6.18.13/6.19.3 and classified as critical. This vulnerability affects the function cm_event_handler of the component iWARP Mode. This manipulation causes use after free. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-45898. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.74/6.18.13/6.19.3 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function cm_event_handler of the component iWARP Mode. 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: RDMA/iwcm: Fix workqueue list corruption by removing work_list The commit e1168f0 ("RDMA/iwcm: Simplify cm_event_handler()") changed the work submission logic to unconditionally call queue_work() with the expectation that queue_work() would have no effect if work was already pending. The problem is that a free list of struct iwcm_work is used (for which struct work_struct is embedded), so each call to queue_work() is basically unique and therefore does indeed queue the work. This causes a problem in the work handler which walks the work_list until it's empty to process entries. This means that a single run of the work handler could process item N+1 and release it back to the free list while the actual workqueue entry is still queued. It could then get reused (INIT_WORK...) and lead to list corruption in the workqueue logic. Fix this by just removing the work_list. The workqueue already does this for us. This fixes the following error that was observed when stress testing with ucmatose on an Intel E830 in iWARP mode: [ 151.465780] list_del corruption. next->prev should be ffff9f0915c69c08, but was ffff9f0a1116be08. (next=ffff9f0a15b11c08) [ 151.466639] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 151.466986] kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:67! [ 151.467349] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 151.467753] CPU: 14 UID: 0 PID: 2306 Comm: kworker/u64:18 Not tainted 6.19.0-rc4+ #1 PREEMPT(voluntary) [ 151.468466] Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 151.469192] Workqueue: 0x0 (iw_cm_wq) [ 151.469478] RIP: 0010:__list_del_entry_valid_or_report+0xf0/0x100 [ 151.469942] Code: c7 58 5f 4c b2 e8 10 50 aa ff 0f 0b 48 89 ef e8 36 57 cb ff 48 8b 55 08 48 89 e9 48 89 de 48 c7 c7 a8 5f 4c b2 e8 f0 4f aa ff <0f> 0b 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 [ 151.471323] RSP: 0000:ffffb15644e7bd68 EFLAGS: 00010046 [ 151.471712] RAX: 000000000000006d RBX: ffff9f0915c69c08 RCX: 0000000000000027 [ 151.472243] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff9f0a37d9c600 [ 151.472768] RBP: ffff9f0a15b11c08 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: c0000000ffff7fff [ 151.473294] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: ffffb15644e7bba8 R12: ffff9f092339ee68 [ 151.473817] R13: ffff9f0900059c28 R14: ffff9f092339ee78 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 151.474344] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff9f0a847b5000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 151.474934] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 151.475362] CR2: 0000559e233a9088 CR3: 000000020296b004 CR4: 0000000000770ef0 [ 151.475895] PKRU: 55555554 [ 151.476118] Call Trace: [ 151.476331] <TASK> [ 151.476497] move_linked_works+0x49/0xa0 [ 151.476792] __pwq_activate_work.isra.46+0x2f/0xa0 [ 151.477151] pwq_dec_nr_in_flight+0x1e0/0x2f0 [ 151.477479] process_scheduled_works+0x1c8/0x410 [ 151.477823] worker_thread+0x125/0x260 [ 151.478108] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [ 151.478430] kthread+0xfe/0x240 [ 151.478671] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 151.478955] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 151.479240] ret_from_fork+0x208/0x270 [ 151.479523] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 151.479806] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 151.480103] </TASK>

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-45898 since 05/13/2026. 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 06/26/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 321697 (SUSE SLES16 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2026:22099-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.75, 6.18.14 or 6.19.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 38c5b49fffa1b760959af74f11806eeb3ef4706d/eb715133e0ae12514bba4d2d5ce1dee774476056/a6b9e793e74e372daa266fd0d58b751305877897/7874eeacfa42177565c01d5198726671acf7adf2 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 (321697) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1700). 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
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 6.18.0
• 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
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3

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

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

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