Executive brief
A vulnerability was identified in the Linux kernel's Intel Infrastructure Data Plane Function (idpf) driver. This driver manages high-performance network interfaces often used in data centers. An error in how the system handles device initialization failures could lead to a system crash or instability, potentially impacting the availability of network services.
Technical details
A double-free and use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability exists in drivers/net/ethernet/intel/idpf/idpf_idc.c within the Linux kernel. When auxiliary_device_add() fails in idpf_plug_vport_aux_dev() or idpf_plug_core_aux_dev(), the error handling logic incorrectly falls through after calling auxiliary_device_uninit(). Because auxiliary_device_uninit() triggers a release callback that frees the 'iadev' structure, the subsequent fall-through attempts to access and free the same memory again. This can be triggered during device probing or initialization. The issue has been resolved by ensuring IDA slots are freed and pointers are cleared before the uninitialization call, followed by an immediate return.
Affected products
- Linux Linux Kernel 6.17 to 6.18.33, 7.0 to 7.0.10
Timeline
- 2026-06-26: disclosed
- 2026-06-26: advisory