# CVE-2026-72139: linux: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tcp: defer md5sig_info kfree past RCU grace peri... CVE-2026-72139 is fixed in 20 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72139, released August 15, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Urgent. - Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-72139 - Priority: Urgent - CVSS: 9.8 (critical) - EPSS: 0.0063 - CISA KEV: not listed - Exploited (vendor report): no - Publicly disclosed: no - Published: Aug 15, 2026 ## Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tcp: defer md5sig_info kfree past RCU grace period in tcp_connect The md5+ao reconciliation in tcp_connect() (net/ipv4/tcp_output.c) has two symmetric branches: if (needs_md5) { tcp_ao_destroy_sock(sk, false); } else if (needs_ao) { tcp_clear_md5_list(sk); kfree(rcu_replace_pointer(tp->md5sig_info, NULL, ...)); } Both branches free a per-socket auth-info object while the socket is in TCP_SYN_SENT and is already on the inet ehash (inserted by inet_hash_connect() in tcp_v4_connect()). Both branches are reachable by softirq RX-path readers that load the corresponding info pointer via implicit RCU before bh_lock_sock_nested() is taken. The needs_md5 branch is fixed in the prior patch by re-introducing the call_rcu() free in tcp_ao_destroy_sock(): the equivalent per-key loop runs inside tcp_ao_info_free_rcu(), the RCU callback, so by the time it frees each tcp_ao_key all softirq readers that captured the container have already completed rcu_read_unlock(). The needs_ao branch is not symmetric in the same way. The container free can be deferred via kfree_rcu(md5sig, rcu) -- struct tcp_md5sig_info already has the required rcu member (include/net/tcp.h:1999-2002), and the rest of the tree already does this in the tcp_md5sig_info_add() rollback paths (net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c:1410, 1436). But the per-key teardown is done by tcp_clear_md5_list() in process context BEFORE the container's RCU grace period: it walks &md5sig->head and frees each tcp_md5sig_key with bare hlist_del + kfree. A concurrent softirq reader in __tcp_md5_do_lookup() / __tcp_md5_do_lookup_exact() (tcp_ipv4.c:1253, 1298) walks the same list via hlist_for_each_entry_rcu() and races with that bare kfree on the keys themselves -- a per-key slab use-after-free of the same class as the TCP-AO bug, on the same race window. Fix this in two halves: 1. Convert the bare kfree() in tcp_connect() to kfree_rcu() so the md5sig_info container joins the rest of the md5sig lifecycle. The local-variable lift is mechanical and required because kfree_rcu() is a macro that expects an lvalue. 2. Make tcp_clear_md5_list() RCU-safe by replacing hlist_del + kfree(key) with hlist_del_rcu + kfree_rcu(key, rcu). struct tcp_md5sig_key already carries the rcu member (include/net/tcp.h:1995) and tcp_md5_do_del() (net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c:1456) already uses kfree_rcu, so this restores the lifecycle invariant the rest of the file follows rather than introducing a one-off. The other caller of tcp_clear_md5_list() is tcp_md5_destruct_sock() (net/ipv4/tcp.c:412), which runs from the sock destructor when the socket is already unhashed and unreachable; the extra grace period there is unnecessary but harmless. Making the helper unconditionally RCU-safe is the cleaner contract. The needs_ao branch is not reachable by the userns reproducer used to demonstrate the AO-side splat (the repro installs both keys but ends up in the needs_md5 branch because the connect peer matches the MD5 key, not the AO key); however the symmetric race exists and a maintainer touching this code should not have to think about which branch escapes RCU and which one does not. [also credits to Qihang, who found that this races with tcp-diag] ## Where it's fixed | Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released | |---|---|---|---|---| | Linux | bpftool6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | bpftool6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-livepatch-6.18.41-94.142 amzn 2023 | 1:1.0-0.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-aarch64 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-x86_64 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-devel amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-headers amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-modules-extra amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-modules-extra-common amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-tools amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-tools-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-tools-devel amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | linux Debian 14 | 7.1.5-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72139](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-72139.md) | Aug 15, 2026 | | Linux | microvm-kernel6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | perf6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | perf6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | python3-perf6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | | Linux | python3-perf6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.41-94.142.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-2071](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-2071.md) | Aug 31, 2026 | --- Data as of 2026-11-09T01:18:40Z UTC. 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