CVE-2025-21683: bpf: Fix bpf_sk_select_reuseport() memory leak

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-01-31 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-401

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Fix bpf_sk_select_reuseport() memory leak As pointed out in the original comment, lookup in sockmap can return a TCP ESTABLISHED socket. Such TCP socket may have had SO_ATTACH_REUSEPORT_EBPF set before it was ESTABLISHED. In other words, a non-NULL sk_reuseport_cb does not imply a non-refcounted socket. Drop sk's reference in both error paths. unreferenced object 0xffff888101911800 (size 2048): comm "test_progs", pid 44109, jiffies 4297131437 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 80 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace (crc 9336483b): __kmalloc_noprof+0x3bf/0x560 __reuseport_alloc+0x1d/0x40 reuseport_alloc+0xca/0x150 reuseport_attach_prog+0x87/0x140 sk_reuseport_attach_bpf+0xc8/0x100 sk_setsockopt+0x1181/0x1990 do_sock_setsockopt+0x12b/0x160 __sys_setsockopt+0x7b/0xc0 __x64_sys_setsockopt+0x1b/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x93/0x180 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.8 before 5.15.177; from 5.16 before 6.1.127; from 6.2 before 6.6.74; from 6.7 before 6.12.11; 6.13-rc1, 6.13-rc2, 6.13-rc3, 6.13-rc4, 6.13-rc5, 6.13-rc6 (+1) — fixed in 5.15.177, 6.1.127, 6.12.11, 6.6.74

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.177, 6.1.127, 6.12.11, 6.6.74. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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