published August 15, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ipv4: igmp: Fix potential memory leaks in igmp_mod_timer() and igmp_stop_timer()
When a timer is deleted and not re-armed in igmp_mod_timer(), or stopped
in igmp_stop_timer(), the code currently decrements the reference counter
of the multicast list entry @im using refcount_dec(&im->refcnt).
However, both functions can be called from the RCU reader path:
- igmp_mod_timer() via igmp_heard_query() -> for_each_pmc_rcu()
- igmp_stop_timer() via igmp_rcv() -> igmp_heard_report()
If the group im was concurrently removed from the list by ip_mc_dec_group(),
its reference count might have already been decremented to 1.
In this case, timer_delete() succeeds, and refcount_dec() decrements
the refcount from 1 to 0. Since refcount_dec() does not free the object
when it hits 0 (unlike ip_ma_put()), the im structure is leaked.
Fix this by using ip_ma_put(im) instead of refcount_dec(&im->refcnt),
and deferring the put until after the spinlock is released.