{"id":"CVE-2026-63918","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2026-63918","generatedAt":"2026-10-28T00:28:32.640Z","title":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: l2tp: use refcount_inc_not_zero in l2tp_session_get_by_ifname A reader in l2tp_session_get_by_ifname() can return a pointer to a session whose refcount has reached zero.","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nl2tp: use refcount_inc_not_zero in l2tp_session_get_by_ifname\n\nA reader in l2tp_session_get_by_ifname() can return a pointer to a\nsession whose refcount has reached zero. The getter takes its\nreference with plain refcount_inc(), but every other session getter\nin the same file (l2tp_v2_session_get, l2tp_v3_session_get, and the\ncorresponding _get_next variants) uses refcount_inc_not_zero()\nbecause the IDR/RCU lookup can race with refcount_dec_and_test() ->\nl2tp_session_free() -> kfree_rcu(). The ifname getter is the only\noutlier; the inconsistency was raised on-list after 979c017803c4\n(\"l2tp: use list_del_rcu in l2tp_session_unhash\").\n\nA reader inside rcu_read_lock_bh() that matches session->ifname can\nbe preempted between the strcmp() and the refcount_inc(). If the\nlast reference drops on another CPU in that window, the reader's\nrefcount_inc() runs on a counter that has reached zero. refcount_t\ncatches the addition-on-zero, prints \"refcount_t: addition on 0;\nuse-after-free\", saturates the counter, and returns the saturated\npointer to the caller. Session memory is held live by the in-flight\nRCU read section, but the kfree_rcu() callback queued from\nl2tp_session_free() will free it once the grace period closes; a\ncaller that dereferences the returned session past that point hits\na slab-use-after-free. On PREEMPT_RT local_bh_disable() is a per-CPU\nsleeping lock and the preemption window is real; on stock PREEMPT\nkernels local_bh_disable() is a preempt_count increment that closes\nthe cross-CPU race in practice (see below).\n\nUse refcount_inc_not_zero() and continue the list walk on failure,\nmatching the other session getters in the file. The ifname getter\nis the only session getter in net/l2tp/ that still uses the bare\nrefcount_inc() pattern; this change restores file-internal\nconsistency. The success path is unchanged.","published":"2026-07-19T16:17:10.000Z","lastModified":"2026-07-27T17:44:24.000Z","status":"Awaiting Analysis","sourceIdentifier":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":7.8,"severity":"HIGH","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"},"cwe":[],"affected":[],"epss":{"score":0.00163,"percentile":0.05467,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"high","text":"High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.16%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/05f95729ca844704d15e49ce14868af4b403b32b","source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/782d60a6596aee9b29c2eecfa70033899278bf65","source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/947013fd7c8c35dd5856557b215840098a3f67f8","source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ee80455feffb9cb62b5b58715cabeff495e666b2","source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-63918","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}