vulnerability
Ubuntu: (Multiple Advisories) (CVE-2025-21893): Linux kernel vulnerabilities
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | (AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C) | Mar 31, 2025 | Jun 26, 2025 | Mar 27, 2026 |
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
keys: Fix UAF in key_put()
Once a key's reference count has been reduced to 0, the garbage collector
thread may destroy it at any time and so key_put() is not allowed to touch
the key after that point. The most key_put() is normally allowed to do is
to touch key_gc_work as that's a static global variable.
However, in an effort to speed up the reclamation of quota, this is now
done in key_put() once the key's usage is reduced to 0 - but now the code
is looking at the key after the deadline, which is forbidden.
Fix this by using a flag to indicate that a key can be gc'd now rather than
looking at the key's refcount in the garbage collector.
Solutions
References
2026 Global Threat Landscape Report
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