High · published August 15, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
xprtrdma: Fix ep kref imbalance on ADDR_CHANGE
rpcrdma_cm_event_handler() falls through to the disconnected: label
on RDMA_CM_EVENT_ADDR_CHANGE and calls rpcrdma_ep_put() with no
matching get when the event arrives before RDMA_CM_EVENT_ESTABLISHED.
The kref then underflows during connect teardown and
rpcrdma_xprt_disconnect() operates on a freed ep.
Reference counts across a normal connection lifecycle:
rpcrdma_ep_create() kref_init ->1
rpcrdma_xprt_connect() ep_get ->2 (before post_recvs)
RDMA_CM_EVENT_ESTABLISHED ep_get ->3
RDMA_CM_EVENT_DISCONNECTED ep_put ->2
rpcrdma_xprt_drain() ep_put ->1
rpcrdma_xprt_disconnect() tail ep_put ->0 (ep_destroy)
The connect-time get in rpcrdma_xprt_connect(), taken just before
rpcrdma_post_recvs() "while there are outstanding Receives," is
balanced by rpcrdma_xprt_drain. ADDR_CHANGE before ESTABLISHED has
no get to consume, so its put drops the count to 1 and the drain
put then frees the ep while rpcrdma_xprt_disconnect() still holds a
pointer to it.
Fix by dispatching on the prior re_connect_status via xchg(): for
prev == 0 (pre-ESTABLISHED) wake the connect waiter and return with
no put; for prev == 1 call rpcrdma_force_disconnect() and return.
The case-1 arm relies on the subsequent RDMA_CM_EVENT_DISCONNECTED
event -- reliably delivered when rdma_disconnect() is called on a
still-connected cm_id -- to balance the ESTABLISHED get;
rpcrdma_xprt_drain() continues to balance only that connect-time
get. Any other prior value means teardown is already in flight.