Executive brief
A vulnerability was identified in the Linux kernel's Transparent Inter-Process Communication (TIPC) protocol, which is used for efficient communication between nodes in a cluster. A flaw in how the system manages internal monitoring data could allow a local attacker to cause a system crash or potentially execute unauthorized code. This issue primarily impacts system stability and the integrity of the operating system environment.
Technical details
A use-after-free vulnerability exists in the TIPC (Transparent Inter-Process Communication) protocol implementation within the Linux kernel, specifically in the tipc_mon_reinit_self() function. The root cause is a race condition where the monitors array is accessed without proper RTNL (Routing Netlink) locking during background work execution in tipc_net_finalize_work(). An attacker can exploit this by triggering network interface events that lead to the deallocation of monitoring structures while they are still being iterated over. This can result in a kernel panic (DoS) or arbitrary memory corruption. The fix involves ensuring the RTNL lock is held during the finalization work.
Affected products
- Linux Linux kernel All versions prior to the fix in late 2025
Timeline
- 2025-11-07: patched: Initial patch authored by Kuniyuki Iwashima
- 2025-12-06: advisory: CVE-2025-40280 published
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0725e6afb55128be21a2ca36e9674f573ccec173
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/499b5fa78d525c4450ebb76db83207db71efea77
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/51b8f0ab888f8aa5dfac954918864eeda8c12c19
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5f541300b02ef8b2af34f6f7d41ce617f3571e88
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b2e77c789c234e7fe49057d2ced8f32e2d2c7901
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c92dbf85627b5c29e52d9c120a24e785801716df
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f0104977fed25ebe001fd63dab2b6b7fefad3373