CVEvulnerability
CVE-2025-68768
- Status
- Deferred
- Published
- 2026-01-13
- Last modified
- 2026-06-19
- Assigner
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
inet: frags: flush pending skbs in fqdir_pre_exit()
We have been seeing occasional deadlocks on pernet_ops_rwsem since
September in NIPA. The stuck task was usually modprobe (often loading
a driver like ipvlan), trying to take the lock as a Writer.
lockdep does not track readers for rwsems so the read wasn't obvious
from the reports.
On closer inspection the Reader holding the lock was conntrack looping
forever in nf_conntrack_cleanup_net_list(). Based on past experience
with occasional NIPA crashes I looked thru the tests which run before
the crash and noticed that the crash follows ip_defrag.sh. An immediate
red flag. Scouring thru (de)fragmentation queues reveals skbs sitting
around, holding conntrack references.
The problem is that since conntrack depends on nf_defrag_ipv6,
nf_defrag_ipv6 will load first. Since nf_defrag_ipv6 loads first its
netns exit hooks run _after_ conntrack's netns exit hook.
Flush all fragment queue SKBs during fqdir_pre_exit() to release
conntrack references before conntrack cleanup runs. Also flush
the queues in timer expiry handlers when they discover fqdir->dead
is set, in case packet sneaks in while we're running the pre_exit
flush.
The commit under Fixes is not exactly the culprit, but I think
previously the timer firing would eventually unblock the spinning
conntrack.
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/006a5035b495dec008805df249f92c22c89c3d2e git.kernel.org
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22ee4010866da81aeee08e1ea3fddbe418feb212 git.kernel.org
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/543555954b1ee8d1903a7020324efb41b0c97428 git.kernel.org
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c70df25214ac9b32b53e18e6ae3b8f073ffa6903 git.kernel.org