CVE-2026-31638: rxrpc: Only put the call ref if one was acquired

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-04-24 · updated 2026-10-19
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: rxrpc: Only put the call ref if one was acquired rxrpc_input_packet_on_conn() can process a to-client packet after the current client call on the channel has already been torn down. In that case chan->call is NULL, rxrpc_try_get_call() returns NULL and there is no reference to drop. The client-side implicit-end error path does not account for that and unconditionally calls rxrpc_put_call(). This turns a protocol error path into a kernel crash instead of rejecting the packet. Only drop the call reference if one was actually acquired. Keep the existing protocol error handling unchanged.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.2.1 before 6.6.135; from 6.7 before 6.12.82; from 6.13 before 6.18.23; from 6.19 before 6.19.13; 6.2, 7.0-rc1, 7.0-rc2, 7.0-rc3, 7.0-rc4, 7.0-rc5 (+2) — fixed in 6.12.82, 6.18.23, 6.19.13, 6.6.135

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.12.82, 6.18.23, 6.19.13, 6.6.135. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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