Linux Kernel up to 7.0.12 net lib/refcount.c qrtr_port_remove use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 7.0.12 and classified as critical. This vulnerability affects the function qrtr_port_remove in the library lib/refcount.c of the component net. Performing a manipulation results in use after free. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2026-52947. There is no exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.0.12. It has been classified as critical. This affects the function qrtr_port_remove in the library lib/refcount.c of the component net. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: qrtr: fix refcount saturation and potential UAF in qrtr_port_remove In qrtr_port_remove(), the socket reference count is decremented via __sock_put() before the port is removed from the qrtr_ports XArray and before the RCU grace period elapses. This breaks the fundamental RCU update paradigm. It exposes a race window where a concurrent RCU reader (such as qrtr_reset_ports() or qrtr_port_lookup()) can obtain a pointer to the socket from the XArray, and attempt to call sock_hold() on a socket whose reference count has already dropped to zero. This exact race condition was hit during syzkaller fuzzing, leading to the following refcount saturation warning and a potential Use-After-Free: refcount_t: saturated; leaking memory. WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 1273 at lib/refcount.c:22 refcount_warn_saturate+0xae/0x1d0 Modules linked in: qrtr(+) bochs drm_shmem_helper ... Call Trace: qrtr_reset_ports net/qrtr/af_qrtr.c:768 [inline] [qrtr] __qrtr_bind.isra.0+0x48b/0x570 net/qrtr/af_qrtr.c:805 [qrtr] qrtr_bind+0x17d/0x210 net/qrtr/af_qrtr.c:901 [qrtr] kernel_bind+0xe4/0x120 net/socket.c:3592 qrtr_ns_init+0x1a6/0x380 net/qrtr/ns.c:715 [qrtr] qrtr_proto_init+0x3b/0xff0 net/qrtr/af_qrtr.c:169 [qrtr] do_one_initcall+0xf5/0x5e0 init/main.c:1283 ... Fix this by deferring the reference count decrement until after the xa_erase() and the synchronize_rcu() complete. (Note: The v1 of this patch incorrectly replaced __sock_put() with sock_put(). As Simon Horman pointed out, the callers of qrtr_port_remove() still hold a reference to the socket, so freeing the socket memory here would lead to a subsequent UAF in the caller. Thus, the __sock_put() is kept, but only repositioned to close the RCU race.)

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-52947 since 06/09/2026. The exploitability is told 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 06/24/2026).

Upgrading to version 5.10.259, 5.15.210, 6.1.176, 6.6.143, 6.12.94, 6.18.36 or 7.0.13 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 2aa4c12723fe432e623462a3be42a197a128722b/03bfa95e452e2b6ccd76a332060ae4feaf5ad84d/474293d90880622fde9d2430fb0165767090f7b3/2047c2aa0963bb2872fd722300a15bcb441a4c00/7de2d447072be3b1a76793f034432338fc9c494b/ab269990ed58143a92a263be1bee626d82ac03da/3b20ec8f31e8a6a6782243f473b0abd3463621df/a2171131ecda1ed61a594a1eb715e75fdad0fef5 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.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.258
• 5.15.209
• 6.1.175
• 6.6.142
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
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• 6.12.86
• 6.12.87
• 6.12.88
• 6.12.89
• 6.12.90
• 6.12.91
• 6.12.92
• 6.12.93
• 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
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• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
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• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 7.0.0
• 7.0.1
• 7.0.2
• 7.0.3
• 7.0.4
• 7.0.5
• 7.0.6
• 7.0.7
• 7.0.8
• 7.0.9
• 7.0.10
• 7.0.11
• 7.0.12

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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