CVE-2025-40214
Published: Dec 4, 2025
Modified: Jun 2, 2026
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: af_unix: Initialise scc_index in unix_add_edge(). Quang Le reported that the AF_UNIX GC could garbage-collect a receive queue of an alive in-flight socket, with a nice repro. The repro consists of three stages. 1) 1-a. Create a single cyclic reference with many sockets 1-b. close() all sockets 1-c. Trigger GC 2) 2-a. Pass sk-A to an embryo sk-B 2-b. Pass sk-X to sk-X 2-c. Trigger GC 3) 3-a. accept() the embryo sk-B 3-b. Pass sk-B to sk-C 3-c. close() the in-flight sk-A 3-d. Trigger GC As of 2-c, sk-A and sk-X are linked to unix_unvisited_vertices, and unix_walk_scc() groups them into two different SCCs: unix_sk(sk-A)->vertex->scc_index = 2 (UNIX_VERTEX_INDEX_START) unix_sk(sk-X)->vertex->scc_index = 3 Once GC completes, unix_graph_grouped is set to true. Also, unix_graph_maybe_cyclic is set to true due to sk-X's cyclic self-reference, which makes close() trigger GC. At 3-b, unix_add_edge() allocates unix_sk(sk-B)->vertex and links it to unix_unvisited_vertices. unix_update_graph() is called at 3-a. and 3-b., but neither unix_graph_grouped nor unix_graph_maybe_cyclic is changed because both sk-B's listener and sk-C are not in-flight. 3-c decrements sk-A's file refcnt to 1. Since unix_graph_grouped is true at 3-d, unix_walk_scc_fast() is finally called and iterates 3 sockets sk-A, sk-B, and sk-X: sk-A -> sk-B (-> sk-C) sk-X -> sk-X This is totally fine. All of them are not yet close()d and should be grouped into different SCCs. However, unix_vertex_dead() misjudges that sk-A and sk-B are in the same SCC and sk-A is dead. unix_sk(sk-A)->scc_index == unix_sk(sk-B)->scc_index <-- Wrong! && sk-A's file refcnt == unix_sk(sk-A)->vertex->out_degree ^-- 1 in-flight count for sk-B -> sk-A is dead !? The problem is that unix_add_edge() does not initialise scc_index. Stage 1) is used for heap spraying, making a newly allocated vertex have vertex->scc_index == 2 (UNIX_VERTEX_INDEX_START) set by unix_walk_scc() at 1-c. Let's track the max SCC index from the previous unix_walk_scc() call and assign the max + 1 to a new vertex's scc_index. This way, we can continue to avoid Tarjan's algorithm while preventing misjudgments.
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
Linux | Linux | affected adfb68b39b39767d6bfb53e48c4f19c183765686 - < 20003fbb9174121b27bd1da6ebe61542ac4c327daffected d23802221f6755e104606864067c71af8cdb6788 - < 4cd8d755c7d4f515dd9abf483316aca2f1b7b0f3affected ad081928a8b0f57f269df999a28087fce6f2b6ce - < db81ad20fd8aef7cc7d536c52ee5ea4c1f979128affected ad081928a8b0f57f269df999a28087fce6f2b6ce - < 1aa7e40ee850c9053e769957ce6541173891204daffected ad081928a8b0f57f269df999a28087fce6f2b6ce - < 60e6489f8e3b086bd1130ad4450a2c112e863791+2 more versions |
Linux | Linux | affected 6.10unaffected 0 - < 6.10unaffected 6.1.159 - <= 6.1.*unaffected 6.6.117 - <= 6.6.*unaffected 6.12.59 - <= 6.12.*+2 more versions |
References
Security Training
Train your team to recognize and prevent security threats with our comprehensive security awareness program.
Start TrainingVulnerability Scanning
Discover vulnerabilities in your applications and infrastructure before attackers do.
Scan Now