CVE-2025-71097
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ipv4: Fix reference count leak when using error routes with nexthop objects
When a nexthop object is deleted, it is marked as dead and then
fib_table_flush() is called to flush all the routes that are using the
dead nexthop.
The current logic in fib_table_flush() is to only flush error routes
(e.g., blackhole) when it is called as part of network namespace
dismantle (i.e., with flush_all=true). Therefore, error routes are not
flushed when their nexthop object is deleted:
# ip link add name dummy1 up type dummy
# ip nexthop add id 1 dev dummy1
# ip route add 198.51.100.1/32 nhid 1
# ip route add blackhole 198.51.100.2/32 nhid 1
# ip nexthop del id 1
# ip route show
blackhole 198.51.100.2 nhid 1 dev dummy1
As such, they keep holding a reference on the nexthop object which in
turn holds a reference on the nexthop device, resulting in a reference
count leak:
# ip link del dev dummy1
[ 70.516258] unregister_netdevice: waiting for dummy1 to become free. Usage count = 2
Fix by flushing error routes when their nexthop is marked as dead.
IPv6 does not suffer from this problem.
ipv4: Fix reference count leak when using error routes with nexthop objects
When a nexthop object is deleted, it is marked as dead and then
fib_table_flush() is called to flush all the routes that are using the
dead nexthop.
The current logic in fib_table_flush() is to only flush error routes
(e.g., blackhole) when it is called as part of network namespace
dismantle (i.e., with flush_all=true). Therefore, error routes are not
flushed when their nexthop object is deleted:
# ip link add name dummy1 up type dummy
# ip nexthop add id 1 dev dummy1
# ip route add 198.51.100.1/32 nhid 1
# ip route add blackhole 198.51.100.2/32 nhid 1
# ip nexthop del id 1
# ip route show
blackhole 198.51.100.2 nhid 1 dev dummy1
As such, they keep holding a reference on the nexthop object which in
turn holds a reference on the nexthop device, resulting in a reference
count leak:
# ip link del dev dummy1
[ 70.516258] unregister_netdevice: waiting for dummy1 to become free. Usage count = 2
Fix by flushing error routes when their nexthop is marked as dead.
IPv6 does not suffer from this problem.
Vendor
Product
CWE
Yayın Tarihi
2026-01-13 16:16:09
Güncelleme
2026-03-25 16:56:30
Source Identifier
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
KEV Date Added
-
Kategoriler
Referanslar
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/30386e090c49e803c0616a7147e43409c32a2b0e
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/33ff5c207c873215e54e6176624ed57423cb7dea
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5979338c83012110ccd45cae6517591770bfe536
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5de7ad7e18356e39e8fbf7edd185a5faaf4f385a
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac782f4e3bfcde145b8a7f8af31d9422d94d172a
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e3fc381320d04e4a74311e576a86cac49a16fc43
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ee4183501ea556dca31f5ffd8690aa9fd25b609f