Skip to main content

Linux Kernel CVE-2026-31533

| EUVDEUVD-2026-25249 CRITICAL
Use After Free (CWE-416)
2026-04-23 Linux GHSA-r7wv-m72q-8qj8
Critical
Disputed · 9.8 Vendor: Linux
Share

Severity by source

Sources disagree (Medium–Critical)
Vendor (Linux) PRIMARY
9.8 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
7.0 HIGH

Trigger needs a local user with a kTLS socket (PR:L, AV:L) winning a timing race in the crypto backlog path (AC:H); a kernel UAF yields high C/I/A.

3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
CRITICAL
qualitative
Red Hat
5.5 MEDIUM
qualitative

vuln.today treats the vendor’s rating as authoritative. A higher third-party CVSS (e.g. CISA-ADP) is shown for transparency but does not drive the headline severity.

CVSS VectorVendor: Linux

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

7
Patch released
Apr 29, 2026 - 14:51 nvd
Patch available
Re-analysis Queued
Apr 27, 2026 - 15:22 vuln.today
cvss_changed
CVSS changed
Apr 27, 2026 - 15:22 NVD
9.8 (CRITICAL)
Patch available
Apr 23, 2026 - 19:01 EUVD
EUVD ID Assigned
Apr 23, 2026 - 17:30 euvd
EUVD-2026-25249
Analysis Generated
Apr 23, 2026 - 17:30 vuln.today
CVE Published
Apr 23, 2026 - 15:11 nvd
CRITICAL 9.8

DescriptionCVE.org

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net/tls: fix use-after-free in -EBUSY error path of tls_do_encryption

The -EBUSY handling in tls_do_encryption(), introduced by commit 859054147318 ("net: tls: handle backlogging of crypto requests"), has a use-after-free due to double cleanup of encrypt_pending and the scatterlist entry.

When crypto_aead_encrypt() returns -EBUSY, the request is enqueued to the cryptd backlog and the async callback tls_encrypt_done() will be invoked upon completion. That callback unconditionally restores the scatterlist entry (sge->offset, sge->length) and decrements ctx->encrypt_pending. However, if tls_encrypt_async_wait() returns an error, the synchronous error path in tls_do_encryption() performs the same cleanup again, double-decrementing encrypt_pending and double-restoring the scatterlist.

The double-decrement corrupts the encrypt_pending sentinel (initialized to 1), making tls_encrypt_async_wait() permanently skip the wait for pending async callbacks. A subsequent sendmsg can then free the tls_rec via bpf_exec_tx_verdict() while a cryptd callback is still pending, resulting in a use-after-free when the callback fires on the freed record.

Fix this by skipping the synchronous cleanup when the -EBUSY async wait returns an error, since the callback has already handled encrypt_pending and sge restoration.

AnalysisAI

Use-after-free in the Linux kernel's kernel TLS (net/tls) data path lets a local attacker corrupt kernel memory by racing the -EBUSY crypto-backlog error path of tls_do_encryption(). When crypto_aead_encrypt() returns -EBUSY, both the async tls_encrypt_done() callback and the synchronous error path clean up encrypt_pending and the scatterlist, double-decrementing a sentinel so a later sendmsg frees an in-flight tls_rec while a cryptd callback is still pending. Despite an NVD CVSS of 9.8, EPSS is 0.01% and there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis, reflecting the narrow race conditions required.

Technical ContextAI

The flaw lives in kernel TLS (kTLS), the in-kernel TLS record layer that encrypts/decrypts socket data via the kernel crypto (AEAD/cryptd) subsystem. It is a CWE-416 use-after-free introduced by commit 859054147318 ('net: tls: handle backlogging of crypto requests'), which added handling for crypto_aead_encrypt() returning -EBUSY (request queued to the cryptd backlog). Because both the asynchronous completion callback tls_encrypt_done() and the synchronous error path in tls_do_encryption() restore the scatterlist entry (sge->offset/sge->length) and decrement ctx->encrypt_pending, the encrypt_pending sentinel (initialized to 1) is corrupted, causing tls_encrypt_async_wait() to permanently skip waiting for pending callbacks and leaving a freed tls_rec reachable by a still-pending cryptd callback. The affected CPE is cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux (the mainline kernel).

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: update to a fixed stable kernel - 5.15.203, 6.1.169, 6.6.135, 6.12.82, 6.18.23, 6.19.13, or 7.0 as appropriate to your branch, or apply your distribution's update (Ubuntu USN-8277-1/8278-1/8279-1/8280-1; Siemens SSA-019113 / SSA-082556). The upstream fix skips the synchronous cleanup when the -EBUSY async wait returns an error and is available as stable commits (e.g. https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/414fc5e5a5aff776c150f1b86770e0a25a35df3a). If immediate patching is not possible and kTLS is not required, a targeted compensating control is to disable kernel TLS offload so the vulnerable net/tls path is never exercised - for example unload and blacklist the tls module (rmmod tls, then add it to the modprobe blacklist) and stop applications from using TLS_TX/TLS_RX ktls setsockopt; the trade-off is loss of in-kernel TLS acceleration, forcing affected services back to userspace TLS. Restricting untrusted local users on kTLS-using hosts also reduces the race window.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Critical
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 Fixed

Share

CVE-2026-31533 vulnerability details – vuln.today

This site uses cookies essential for authentication and security. No tracking or analytics cookies are used. Privacy Policy