CVE-2025-21893

keys: Fix UAF in key_put()

High · published March 31, 2025

CVSS v3.1
7.8
EPSS
0%
Percentile
8.8
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

keys: Fix UAF in key_put()

Once a key's reference count has been reduced to 0, the garbage collector

thread may destroy it at any time and so key_put() is not allowed to touch

the key after that point. The most key_put() is normally allowed to do is

to touch key_gc_work as that's a static global variable.

However, in an effort to speed up the reclamation of quota, this is now

done in key_put() once the key's usage is reduced to 0 - but now the code

is looking at the key after the deadline, which is forbidden.

Fix this by using a flag to indicate that a key can be gc'd now rather than

looking at the key's refcount in the garbage collector.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
7.8 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00196 · 8.8th percentile
Published
2025-03-31T19:41Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 31 MAR 19:41Z
    keys: Fix UAF in key_put()
    cvelistv5