Expired Pointer Dereference Affecting kernel-rt-core package, versions *


Severity

Recommended
0.0
high
0
10

Based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.64% (48th percentile)

Do your applications use this vulnerable package?

In a few clicks we can analyze your entire application and see what components are vulnerable in your application, and suggest you quick fixes.

Test your applications
  • Snyk IDSNYK-RHEL10-KERNELRTCORE-18934926
  • published19 Aug 2026
  • disclosed15 Aug 2026

Introduced: 15 Aug 2026

NewCVE-2026-72323  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-825  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

There is no fixed version for RHEL:10 kernel-rt-core.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-rt-core package and not the kernel-rt-core package as distributed by RHEL. See How to fix? for RHEL:10 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

ipv4: igmp: Fix potential UAF in igmp_gq_start_timer()

A race condition exists between device teardown (inetdev_destroy) and incoming IGMP query processing (igmp_rcv), leading to a Use-After-Free in the IGMP timer callback.

During device destruction, inetdev_destroy() drops the primary reference to in_device, which can drop its refcount to 0. The actual freeing of in_device memory is deferred via RCU (using call_rcu()).

Concurrently, igmp_rcv() runs under RCU read lock and obtains the in_device pointer. Because the memory is RCU-protected, CPU-0 can safely dereference in_device even if its refcount has hit 0.

However, if CPU-0 calls igmp_gq_start_timer() and re-arms the timer, it attempts to acquire a reference using in_dev_hold(). This increments the refcount from 0 to 1, triggering a "refcount_t: addition on 0" warning. Since the in_device memory is still scheduled to be freed after the RCU grace period (as the free callback does not check the refcount again), the device is freed while the timer is still armed. When the timer expires, it accesses the freed memory, causing a kernel panic.

Fix this by using refcount_inc_not_zero() (via a new helper in_dev_hold_safe()) to prevent acquiring a reference if the device is already being destroyed. If the refcount is 0, we do not arm the timer.

A similar issue in IPv6 MLD is fixed in a subsequent patch.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1