CVE-2026-68122

ovpn: fix peer refcount leak in TCP error paths

State
Published
Severity
Not scored
Published
Aug 10, 2026
Updated
Aug 17, 2026
Reserved
Jul 30, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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

ovpn: fix peer refcount leak in TCP error paths

When either the TCP RX or TX error path calls ovpn_peer_hold() followed by schedule_work(&peer->tcp.defer_del_work), and the work item is already pending from the other path, schedule_work() returns false and the work runs only once. Since ovpn_tcp_peer_del_work() calls ovpn_peer_put() exactly once, the extra reference taken by the losing path is never dropped, leaking the peer object.

The race window:

CPU0 (strparser/RX error): CPU1 (tcp_tx_work/TX error): ovpn_peer_hold() <- refcnt+1 ovpn_peer_hold() <- refcnt+2 schedule_work() <- queued schedule_work() <- NO-OP (work already pending) ovpn_tcp_peer_del_work runs: ovpn_peer_del() ovpn_peer_put() <- refcnt+1 <- peer never freed

Fix by checking the return value of schedule_work() in both paths and calling ovpn_peer_put() to drop the extra reference if the work was already pending. ovpn_peer_hold() is kept unconditional in the TX path as it cannot fail at that point.

Scores

The record has no CVSS score.

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • a6a5e87b3ee4cbf9c69a776565378c9b6a91dbfb to before b08526bf0bbf84ceebd29033783e8e0c9f451286Affected
  • a6a5e87b3ee4cbf9c69a776565378c9b6a91dbfb to before f08f39c1f43f3980d46b06af8ed99ffe84ac294aAffected
  • a6a5e87b3ee4cbf9c69a776565378c9b6a91dbfb to before 63bbe18fc03062f483c627838a566a707b62da79Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 6.16Affected
  • before 6.16Not affected
  • 6.18.42 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 7.1.6 through 7.1.*Not affected
  • 7.2 and laterNot affected

References

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