CVE-2025-38106: io_uring: fix use-after-free of sq->thread in __io_uring_show_fdinfo()

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-38106 is a high (CVSS 7.8) Use After Free vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 9% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 03-07-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 05-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: io_uring: fix use-after-free of sq->thread in __io_uring_show_fdinfo() syzbot reports: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in getrusage+0x1109/0x1a60 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88810de2d2c8 by task a.out/304 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 304 Comm: a.out Not tainted 6.16.0-rc1 #1 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x53/0x70 print_report+0xd0/0x670 ? __pfx__raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x10/0x10 ? getrusage+0x1109/0x1a60 kasan_report+0xce/0x100 ? getrusage+0x1109/0x1a60 getrusage+0x1109/0x1a60 ? __pfx_getrusage+0x10/0x10 __io_uring_show_fdinfo+0x9fe/0x1790 ? ksys_read+0xf7/0x1c0 ? do_syscall_64+0xa4/0x260 ? vsnprintf+0x591/0x1100 ? __pfx___io_uring_show_fdinfo+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_vsnprintf+0x10/0x10 ? mutex_trylock+0xcf/0x130 ? __pfx_mutex_trylock+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_show_fd_locks+0x10/0x10 ? io_uring_show_fdinfo+0x57/0x80 io_uring_show_fdinfo+0x57/0x80 seq_show+0x38c/0x690 seq_read_iter+0x3f7/0x1180 ? inode_set_ctime_current+0x160/0x4b0 seq_read+0x271/0x3e0 ? __pfx_seq_read+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx__raw_spin_lock+0x10/0x10 ? __mark_inode_dirty+0x402/0x810 ? selinux_file_permission+0x368/0x500 ? file_update_time+0x10f/0x160 vfs_read+0x177/0xa40 ? __pfx___handle_mm_fault+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_vfs_read+0x10/0x10 ? mutex_lock+0x81/0xe0 ? __pfx_mutex_lock+0x10/0x10 ? fdget_pos+0x24d/0x4b0 ksys_read+0xf7/0x1c0 ? __pfx_ksys_read+0x10/0x10 ? do_user_addr_fault+0x43b/0x9c0 do_syscall_64+0xa4/0x260 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7f0f74170fc9 Code: 00 c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 8 RSP: 002b:00007fffece049e8 EFLAGS: 00000206 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000000 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f0f74170fc9 RDX: 0000000000001000 RSI: 00007fffece049f0 RDI: 0000000000000004 RBP: 00007fffece05ad0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00007fffece04d90 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000206 R12: 00005651720a1100 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 </TASK> Allocated by task 298: kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 __kasan_slab_alloc+0x6e/0x70 kmem_cache_alloc_node_noprof+0xe8/0x330 copy_process+0x376/0x5e00 create_io_thread+0xab/0xf0 io_sq_offload_create+0x9ed/0xf20 io_uring_setup+0x12b0/0x1cc0 do_syscall_64+0xa4/0x260 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f Freed by task 22: kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x60 __kasan_slab_free+0x37/0x50 kmem_cache_free+0xc4/0x360 rcu_core+0x5ff/0x19f0 handle_softirqs+0x18c/0x530 run_ksoftirqd+0x20/0x30 smpboot_thread_fn+0x287/0x6c0 kthread+0x30d/0x630 ret_from_fork+0xef/0x1a0 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 Last potentially related work creation: kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 kasan_record_aux_stack+0x8c/0xa0 __call_rcu_common.constprop.0+0x68/0x940 __schedule+0xff2/0x2930 __cond_resched+0x4c/0x80 mutex_lock+0x5c/0xe0 io_uring_del_tctx_node+0xe1/0x2b0 io_uring_clean_tctx+0xb7/0x160 io_uring_cancel_generic+0x34e/0x760 do_exit+0x240/0x2350 do_group_exit+0xab/0x220 __x64_sys_exit_group+0x39/0x40 x64_sys_call+0x1243/0x1840 do_syscall_64+0xa4/0x260 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff88810de2cb00 which belongs to the cache task_struct of size 3712 The buggy address is located 1992 bytes inside of freed 3712-byte region [ffff88810de2cb00, ffff88810de2d980) which is caused by the task_struct pointed to by sq->thread being released while it is being used in the function __io_uring_show_fdinfo(). Holding ctx->uring_lock does not prevent ehre relase or exit of sq->thread. Fix this by assigning and looking up ->thread under RCU, and grabbing a reference to the task_struct. This e ---truncated---

• CWE-416Use After FreeThe product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.