CVE-2026-64109

af_unix: Fix UAF read of tail->len in unix_stream_data_wait()

State
Published
Severity
8.8 High
Published
Jul 19, 2026
Updated
Oct 19, 2026
Reserved
Jul 19, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

af_unix: Fix UAF read of tail->len in unix_stream_data_wait()

unix_stream_data_wait() does skb_peek_tail(&sk->sk_receive_queue) without holding any lock that prevents SKBs on that queue from being dequeued and freed. This has been the case since commit 79f632c71bea ("unix/stream: fix peeking with an offset larger than data in queue"). The first consequence of this is that the pointer comparison `tail != last` can be false even if `last` semantically refers to an already-freed SKB while `tail` is a new SKB allocated at the same address; which can cause unix_stream_data_wait() to wrongly keep blocking after new data has arrived, but only in a weird scenario where a peeking recv() and a normal recv() on the same socket are racing, which is probably not a real problem.

But since commit 2b514574f7e8 ("net: af_unix: implement splice for stream af_unix sockets"), `tail` is actually dereferenced, which can cause UAF in the following race scenario (where test_setup() runs single-threaded, and afterwards, test_thread1() and test_thread2() run concurrently in two threads: ``` static int socks[2]; void test_setup(void) { socketpair(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0, socks); send(socks[1], "A", 1, 0); int peekoff = 1; setsockopt(socks[0], SOL_SOCKET, SO_PEEK_OFF, &peekoff, sizeof(peekoff)); } void test_thread1(void) { char dummy; recv(socks[0], &dummy, 1, MSG_PEEK); } void test_thread2(void) { char dummy; recv(socks[0], &dummy, 1, 0); shutdown(socks[1], SHUT_WR); } ```

when racing like this: ``` thread1 thread2 unix_stream_read_generic mutex_lock(&u->iolock) skb_peek(&sk->sk_receive_queue) skb_peek_next(skb, &sk->sk_receive_queue) mutex_unlock(&u->iolock) unix_stream_read_generic unix_state_lock(sk) skb_peek(&sk->sk_receive_queue) unix_state_unlock(sk) unix_stream_data_wait unix_state_lock(sk) tail = skb_peek_tail(&sk->sk_receive_queue) spin_lock(&sk->sk_receive_queue.lock) __skb_unlink(skb, &sk->sk_receive_queue) spin_unlock(&sk->sk_receive_queue.lock) consume_skb(skb) [frees the SKB] `tail != last`: false `tail`: true `tail->len != last_len` ***UAF*** ```

Fix the UAF by removing the read of tail->len; checking tail->len would only make sense if SKBs in the receive queue of a UNIX socket could grow, which can no longer happen.

Kuniyuki explained:

> When commit 869e7c62486e ("net: af_unix: implement stream sendpage > support") added sendpage() support, data could be appended to the last > skb in the receiver's queue. > > That's why we needed to check if the length of the last skb was changed > while waiting for new data in unix_stream_data_wait(). > > However, commit a0dbf5f818f9 ("af_unix: Support MSG_SPLICE_PAGES") and > commit 57d44a354a43 ("unix: Convert unix_stream_sendpage() to use > MSG_SPLICE_PAGES") refactored sendmsg(), and now data is always added > to a new skb.

That means this fix is not suitable for kernels before 6.5.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.18.8 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HLinux

Weaknesses

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 2b514574f7e88c8498027ee366fd6e7aae5aa4b5 to before 26342087fac93b3932e6af61dc91ec029cb8a623Affected
  • 2b514574f7e88c8498027ee366fd6e7aae5aa4b5 to before 38bccb927d83d7d52e5b20015a172a0b6101d11eAffected
  • 2b514574f7e88c8498027ee366fd6e7aae5aa4b5 to before acdff9907478e82208475b1151700d0b71dcdc63Affected
  • 2b514574f7e88c8498027ee366fd6e7aae5aa4b5 to before 5f162f95a95834f06a8ec6140889272ad12e842fAffected
  • 2b514574f7e88c8498027ee366fd6e7aae5aa4b5 to before be309f8eae8b474a4a617eaae01324da996fc719Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 4.2Affected
  • before 4.2Not affected
  • 6.6.143 through 6.6.*Not affected
  • 6.12.92 through 6.12.*Not affected
  • 6.18.34 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 7.0.11 through 7.0.*Not affected
  • 7.1 and laterNot affected

References

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