CVE-2025-40256

Linux Kernel 6.16.0-6.17.10 - Memory Leak in xfrm_state_gc_destroy

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: also call xfrm_state_delete_tunnel at destroy time for states that were never added In commit b441cf3f8c4b ("xfrm: delete x->tunnel as we delete x"), I missed the case where state creation fails between full initialization (->init_state has been called) and being inserted on the lists. In this situation, ->init_state has been called, so for IPcomp tunnels, the fallback tunnel has been created and added onto the lists, but the user state never gets added, because we fail before that. The user state doesn't go through __xfrm_state_delete, so we don't call xfrm_state_delete_tunnel for those states, and we end up leaking the FB tunnel. There are several codepaths affected by this: the add/update paths, in both net/key and xfrm, and the migrate code (xfrm_migrate, xfrm_state_migrate). A "proper" rollback of the init_state work would probably be doable in the add/update code, but for migrate it gets more complicated as multiple states may be involved. At some point, the new (not-inserted) state will be destroyed, so call xfrm_state_delete_tunnel during xfrm_state_gc_destroy. Most states will have their fallback tunnel cleaned up during __xfrm_state_delete, which solves the issue that b441cf3f8c4b (and other patches before it) aimed at. All states (including FB tunnels) will be removed from the lists once xfrm_state_fini has called flush_work(&xfrm_state_gc_work).

Scores

EPSS 0.0004
EPSS Percentile 12.4%

Details

Status published
Products (12)
linux/Kernel 6.16.0 - 6.17.10linux
Linux/Linux < 6.16
Linux/Linux 0da961fa46da1b37ef868d9b603bd202136f8f8e - 64441724387b4ac92f67ef51caaaeffe99c950d1
Linux/Linux 1b28a7fae0128fa140a7dccd995182ff6cd1c67b - 57b72d74d4651dc19d046308a8304eb9abfe66ac
Linux/Linux 4b2c17d0f9be8b58bb30468bc81a4b61c985b04e - 1dad653643f28ccc89be93f9440b8804cded85b2
Linux/Linux 6.16
Linux/Linux 6.17.10 - 6.17.*
Linux/Linux 6.18
Linux/Linux b441cf3f8c4b8576639d20c8eb4aa32917602ecd - 10deb69864840ccf96b00ac2ab3a2055c0c04721
Linux/Linux b441cf3f8c4b8576639d20c8eb4aa32917602ecd - d6fe5c740c573af10943b8353992e1325cdb2715
... and 2 more
Published Dec 04, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026