High · published August 22, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
vxlan: do not arm the ageing timer on a device that is down
vxlan_changelink() arms vxlan->age_timer whenever the requested ageing
interval differs from the configured one:
if (conf.age_interval != vxlan->cfg.age_interval)
mod_timer(&vxlan->age_timer, jiffies);
There is no netif_running() test, so the timer is armed even on a device
that was never brought up. The only synchronous cancel in the driver is
the timer_delete_sync() in vxlan_stop(), which is .ndo_stop.
netif_close_many() drops devices without IFF_UP before
__dev_close_many() runs, so that cancel is skipped for such a device.
vxlan_setup() sets dev->needs_free_netdev = true and age_timer is a
member of struct vxlan_dev, so free_netdev() releases the allocation the
timer lives in while it is still queued on a timer_base.
expire_timers() unlinks the entry before it loads timer->function, so
the timer core writes through the freed object's list pointers:
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __run_timers+0x208/0x654
Write of size 8 at addr ffff00001adace68 by task true/192
__asan_store8+0x84/0xac
__run_timers+0x208/0x654
run_timer_softirq+0x154/0x18c
Allocated by task 189:
alloc_netdev_mqs+0x64/0x720
rtnl_create_link+0x4ac/0x520
rtnl_newlink+0x758/0xd00
Freed by task 191:
netdev_release+0x40/0x58
netdev_run_todo+0x4a4/0x8c0
rtnl_dellink+0x200/0x4e8
The rtnl operations involved are netns-scoped, so an unprivileged user
can perform them in a new user and network namespace.
Arming the timer on a down device never had an effect: vxlan_cleanup()
returns early on !netif_running(), and vxlan_open() arms the timer for
any non-zero interval once the device is brought up. Add the missing
test.
Discovered by XBOW, triaged by Baul Lee <[email protected]>