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CVE-2026-63803

Updated on 19 Jul 2026

Severity

5.5 Medium severity

Details

CVSS score
5.5
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Links
NISTCIRCLRHELUbuntu

Overview

About vulnerability

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

hdlc_ppp: sync per-proto timers before freeing hdlc state

Each PPP control protocol (LCP/IPCP/IPV6CP) embedded in struct ppp registers a timer via timer_setup(). That struct ppp is the hdlc->state allocation, which detach_hdlc_protocol() frees with kfree() in both teardown paths: unregister_hdlc_device() and the re-attach inside attach_hdlc_protocol().

The ppp proto never registered a .detach callback, so detach_hdlc_protocol() performs no timer synchronization before the kfree(). The only cancel, timer_delete(&proto->timer) in ppp_cp_event(), is partial (it does not wait for a running callback) and only runs on the ->CLOSED transition; ppp_stop()/ppp_close() do not sync either. A ppp_timer callback already executing (blocked on ppp->lock) survives the kfree and then dereferences proto->state / ppp->lock in freed memory, leading to a use-after-free.

Fix this by adding a .detach helper that calls timer_shutdown_sync() on every per-proto timer. detach_hdlc_protocol() invokes proto->detach(dev) before kfree(hdlc->state), so timer_shutdown_sync() now runs on both free paths. timer_shutdown_sync() is used instead of timer_delete_sync() because the keepalive path re-arms the timer through add_timer()/mod_timer() and shutdown blocks any re-activation during teardown.

Initialize the per-protocol timers in ppp_ioctl() when the protocol is attached, and remove the now-redundant timer_setup() from ppp_start(), so that the timers are initialized exactly once at attach time and ppp_timer_release() never operates on uninitialized timer_list structures. attach_hdlc_protocol() uses kmalloc() (not kzalloc), so struct ppp’s protos[i].timer is uninitialized garbage until the first timer_setup(); without this init-at-attach, attaching the PPP protocol without ever bringing the device up would leave timer_shutdown_sync() operating on uninitialized memory in .detach. Moving the init out of ppp_start() (which only runs on NETDEV_UP) into the attach path makes the initialization unconditional and avoids initializing the same timer_list twice.

This bug was found by static analysis.

Details

Affected product:
AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , Amazon Linux 2 ELS , CentOS 6 ELS , CentOS 7 ELS , CentOS 8.4 ELS , CentOS 8.5 ELS , CentOS Stream 8 ELS , CloudLinux 7 ELS , Debian 10 ELS , Debian 11 ELS , Oracle Linux 6 ELS , Oracle Linux 7 ELS , RHEL 7 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , TuxCare 9.8 ESU , Ubuntu 16.04 ELS , Ubuntu 18.04 ELS , Ubuntu 20.04 ELS
Affected packages:
linux @ 5.10.259 (+19 more)

Fixes

KernelCare state

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.

Operating system Status Covered kernels
Debian 11 Released
44 kernels
  • 5.10.46-5
  • 5.10.70-1
  • 5.10.46-4
  • 5.10.84-1
  • 5.10.92-1
  • 5.10.92-2
  • 5.10.103-1
  • 5.10.106-1
  • 5.10.113-1
  • 5.10.120-1
  • 5.10.127-1
  • 5.10.127-2
  • 5.10.136-1
  • 5.10.140-1
  • 5.10.149-1
  • 5.10.149-2
  • 5.10.158-2
  • 5.10.162-1
  • 5.10.179-1
  • 5.10.179-2
  • 5.10.179-3
  • 5.10.179-5
  • 5.10.191-1
  • 5.10.197-1
  • 5.10.178-3
  • 5.10.205-2
  • 5.10.205-1
  • 5.10.209-2
  • 5.10.216-1
  • 5.10.218-1
  • 5.10.221-1
  • 5.10.223-1
  • 5.10.226-1
  • 5.10.234-1
  • 5.10.237-1
  • 5.10.244-1
  • 5.10.247-1
  • 5.10.249-1
  • 5.10.251-1
  • 5.10.251-3
  • 5.10.251-4
  • 5.10.251-5
  • 5.10.257-1
  • 5.10.259-1
Debian 11 cloud Released
24 kernels
  • 5.10.113-1
  • 5.10.179-2
  • 5.10.179-3
  • 5.10.179-5
  • 5.10.191-1
  • 5.10.197-1
  • 5.10.205-2
  • 5.10.209-2
  • 5.10.216-1
  • 5.10.218-1
  • 5.10.221-1
  • 5.10.223-1
  • 5.10.226-1
  • 5.10.234-1
  • 5.10.237-1
  • 5.10.244-1
  • 5.10.247-1
  • 5.10.249-1
  • 5.10.251-1
  • 5.10.251-3
  • 5.10.251-4
  • 5.10.251-5
  • 5.10.257-1
  • 5.10.259-1
Debian 13 Planned —