published October 7, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tcp: fix use-after-free of retransmit_skb_hint in tcp_send_synack()
When tcp_send_synack() replaces the cloned SYN skb at the head of the
retransmit queue with a copy, it frees the original with
tcp_rtx_queue_unlink_and_free() and only repairs tp->highest_sack.
tp->retransmit_skb_hint keeps pointing at the freed
skbuff_fclone_cache object.
The dangling hint is read in tcp_verify_retransmit_hint() and used as
the root of the rbtree walk in tcp_xmit_retransmit_queue(). An
unprivileged TFO client (sendmsg(MSG_FASTOPEN)) can arm the hint with
an attacker-supplied ICMP fragmentation-needed message, after which a
simultaneous open frees the armed SYN skb:
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in tcp_mark_skb_lost (net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:1316)
Read of size 4 at addr ffff88800604d928 by task swapper/1/0
Call Trace:
tcp_mark_skb_lost (net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:1316)
tcp_simple_retransmit (net/ipv4/tcp_input.c:3158)
tcp_v4_err (net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c:587)
Sync the hint to the copy.