CVE-2025-39979: net/mlx5: fs, fix UAF in flow counter release

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-10-15 · updated 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5: fs, fix UAF in flow counter release Fix a kernel trace [1] caused by releasing an HWS action of a local flow counter in mlx5_cmd_hws_delete_fte(), where the HWS action refcount and mutex were not initialized and the counter struct could already be freed when deleting the rule. Fix it by adding the missing initializations and adding refcount for the local flow counter struct. [1] Kernel log: Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x34/0x48 mlx5_fs_put_hws_action.part.0.cold+0x21/0x94 [mlx5_core] mlx5_fc_put_hws_action+0x96/0xad [mlx5_core] mlx5_fs_destroy_fs_actions+0x8b/0x152 [mlx5_core] mlx5_cmd_hws_delete_fte+0x5a/0xa0 [mlx5_core] del_hw_fte+0x1ce/0x260 [mlx5_core] mlx5_del_flow_rules+0x12d/0x240 [mlx5_core] ? ttwu_queue_wakelist+0xf4/0x110 mlx5_ib_destroy_flow+0x103/0x1b0 [mlx5_ib] uverbs_free_flow+0x20/0x50 [ib_uverbs] destroy_hw_idr_uobject+0x1b/0x50 [ib_uverbs] uverbs_destroy_uobject+0x34/0x1a0 [ib_uverbs] uobj_destroy+0x3c/0x80 [ib_uverbs] ib_uverbs_run_method+0x23e/0x360 [ib_uverbs] ? uverbs_finalize_object+0x60/0x60 [ib_uverbs] ib_uverbs_cmd_verbs+0x14f/0x2c0 [ib_uverbs] ? do_tty_write+0x1a9/0x270 ? file_tty_write.constprop.0+0x98/0xc0 ? new_sync_write+0xfc/0x190 ib_uverbs_ioctl+0xd7/0x160 [ib_uverbs] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x87/0xc0 do_syscall_64+0x59/0x90

Affected products

Linux kernel: 6.14 — fixed in 6.17

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.17. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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