CVE-2025-39945

HIGH

Linux Kernel Use-After-Free in cnic_delete_task

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cnic: Fix use-after-free bugs in cnic_delete_task The original code uses cancel_delayed_work() in cnic_cm_stop_bnx2x_hw(), which does not guarantee that the delayed work item 'delete_task' has fully completed if it was already running. Additionally, the delayed work item is cyclic, the flush_workqueue() in cnic_cm_stop_bnx2x_hw() only blocks and waits for work items that were already queued to the workqueue prior to its invocation. Any work items submitted after flush_workqueue() is called are not included in the set of tasks that the flush operation awaits. This means that after the cyclic work items have finished executing, a delayed work item may still exist in the workqueue. This leads to use-after-free scenarios where the cnic_dev is deallocated by cnic_free_dev(), while delete_task remains active and attempt to dereference cnic_dev in cnic_delete_task(). A typical race condition is illustrated below: CPU 0 (cleanup) | CPU 1 (delayed work callback) cnic_netdev_event() | cnic_stop_hw() | cnic_delete_task() cnic_cm_stop_bnx2x_hw() | ... cancel_delayed_work() | /* the queue_delayed_work() flush_workqueue() | executes after flush_workqueue()*/ | queue_delayed_work() cnic_free_dev(dev)//free | cnic_delete_task() //new instance | dev = cp->dev; //use Replace cancel_delayed_work() with cancel_delayed_work_sync() to ensure that the cyclic delayed work item is properly canceled and that any ongoing execution of the work item completes before the cnic_dev is deallocated. Furthermore, since cancel_delayed_work_sync() uses __flush_work(work, true) to synchronously wait for any currently executing instance of the work item to finish, the flush_workqueue() becomes redundant and should be removed. This bug was identified through static analysis. To reproduce the issue and validate the fix, I simulated the cnic PCI device in QEMU and introduced intentional delays — such as inserting calls to ssleep() within the cnic_delete_task() function — to increase the likelihood of triggering the bug.

Scores

CVSS v3 7.8
EPSS 0.0014
EPSS Percentile 4.0%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact total

Details

CWE
CWE-416
Status published
Products (27)
linux/Kernel 2.6.37 - 5.4.300linux
linux/Kernel 5.11.0 - 5.15.194linux
linux/Kernel 5.16.0 - 6.1.154linux
linux/Kernel 5.5.0 - 5.10.245linux
linux/Kernel 6.13.0 - 6.16.9linux
linux/Kernel 6.2.0 - 6.6.108linux
linux/Kernel 6.7.0 - 6.12.49linux
Linux/Linux < 2.6.37
Linux/Linux 2.6.37
Linux/Linux 5.10.245 - 5.10.*
... and 17 more
Published Oct 04, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026