CVE: CVE-2025-38666
Published: 2025-08-22
Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: appletalk: Fix use-after-free in AARP proxy probe

The AARP proxy‐probe routine (aarp_proxy_probe_network) sends a probe,
releases the aarp_lock, sleeps, then re-acquires the lock.  During that
window an expire timer thread (__aarp_expire_timer) can remove and
kfree() the same entry, leading to a use-after-free.

race condition:

         cpu 0                          |            cpu 1
    atalk_sendmsg()                     |   atif_proxy_probe_device()
    aarp_send_ddp()                     |   aarp_proxy_probe_network()
    mod_timer()                         |   lock(aarp_lock) // LOCK!!
    timeout around 200ms                |   alloc(aarp_entry)
    and then call                       |   proxies[hash] = aarp_entry
    aarp_expire_timeout()               |   aarp_send_probe()
                                        |   unlock(aarp_lock) // UNLOCK!!
    lock(aarp_lock) // LOCK!!           |   msleep(100);
    __aarp_expire_timer(&proxies[ct])   |
    free(aarp_entry)                    |
    unlock(aarp_lock) // UNLOCK!!       |
                                        |   lock(aarp_lock) // LOCK!!
                                        |   UAF aarp_entry !!

==================================================================
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in aarp_proxy_probe_network+0x560/0x630 net/appletalk/aarp.c:493
Read of size 4 at addr ffff8880123aa360 by task repro/13278

CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 13278 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.15.2 #3 PREEMPT(full)
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline]
 dump_stack_lvl+0x116/0x1b0 lib/dump_stack.c:120
 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:408 [inline]
 print_report+0xc1/0x630 mm/kasan/report.c:521
 kasan_report+0xca/0x100 mm/kasan/report.c:634
 aarp_proxy_probe_network+0x560/0x630 net/appletalk/aarp.c:493
 atif_proxy_probe_device net/appletalk/ddp.c:332 [inline]
 atif_ioctl+0xb58/0x16c0 net/appletalk/ddp.c:857
 atalk_ioctl+0x198/0x2f0 net/appletalk/ddp.c:1818
 sock_do_ioctl+0xdc/0x260 net/socket.c:1190
 sock_ioctl+0x239/0x6a0 net/socket.c:1311
 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline]
 __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:906 [inline]
 __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:892 [inline]
 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x194/0x200 fs/ioctl.c:892
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xcb/0x250 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
 </TASK>

Allocated:
 aarp_alloc net/appletalk/aarp.c:382 [inline]
 aarp_proxy_probe_network+0xd8/0x630 net/appletalk/aarp.c:468
 atif_proxy_probe_device net/appletalk/ddp.c:332 [inline]
 atif_ioctl+0xb58/0x16c0 net/appletalk/ddp.c:857
 atalk_ioctl+0x198/0x2f0 net/appletalk/ddp.c:1818

Freed:
 kfree+0x148/0x4d0 mm/slub.c:4841
 __aarp_expire net/appletalk/aarp.c:90 [inline]
 __aarp_expire_timer net/appletalk/aarp.c:261 [inline]
 aarp_expire_timeout+0x480/0x6e0 net/appletalk/aarp.c:317

The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8880123aa300
 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-192 of size 192
The buggy address is located 96 bytes inside of
 freed 192-byte region [ffff8880123aa300, ffff8880123aa3c0)

Memory state around the buggy address:
 ffff8880123aa200: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 ffff8880123aa280: 00 00 00 00 fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
>ffff8880123aa300: fa fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
                                                       ^
 ffff8880123aa380: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
 ffff8880123aa400: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
==================================================================
CVSS Score: 7.8 (HIGH)
CWE: CWE-416
References: https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/186942d19c0222617ef61f50e1dba91e269a5963; https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2a6209e4649d45fd85d4193abc481911858ffc6f; https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5f02ea0f63dd38c41539ea290fcc1693c73aa8e5