CVE-2025-68801mlxsw: spectrum_router: Fix neighbour use-after-free

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mlxsw: spectrum_router: Fix neighbour use-after-free We sometimes observe use-after-free when dereferencing a neighbour [1]. The problem seems to be that the driver stores a pointer to the neighbour, but without holding a reference on it. A reference is only taken when the neighbour is used by a nexthop. Fix by simplifying the reference counting scheme. Always take a reference when storing a neighbour pointer in a neighbour entry. Avoid taking a referencing when the neighbour is used by a nexthop as the neighbour entry associated with the nexthop already holds a reference. Tested by running the test that uncovered the problem over 300 times. Without this patch the problem was reproduced after a handful of iterations. [1] BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in mlxsw_sp_neigh_entry_update+0x2d4/0x310 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88817f8e3420 by task ip/3929 CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 3929 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.18.0-rc4-virtme-g36b21a067510 #3 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Nvidia SN5600/VMOD0013, BIOS 5.13 05/31/2023 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x6f/0xa0 print_address_description.constprop.0+0x6e/0x300 print_report+0xfc/0x1fb kasan_report+0xe4/0x110 mlxsw_sp_neigh_entry_update+0x2d4/0x310 mlxsw_sp_router_rif_gone_sync+0x35f/0x510 mlxsw_sp_rif_destroy+0x1ea/0x730 mlxsw_sp_inetaddr_port_vlan_event+0xa1/0x1b0 __mlxsw_sp_inetaddr_lag_event+0xcc/0x130 __mlxsw_sp_inetaddr_event+0xf5/0x3c0 mlxsw_sp_router_netdevice_event+0x1015/0x1580 notifier_call_chain+0xcc/0x150 call_netdevice_notifiers_info+0x7e/0x100 __netdev_upper_dev_unlink+0x10b/0x210 netdev_upper_dev_unlink+0x79/0xa0 vrf_del_slave+0x18/0x50 do_set_master+0x146/0x7d0 do_setlink.isra.0+0x9a0/0x2880 rtnl_newlink+0x637/0xb20 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x6fe/0xb90 netlink_rcv_skb+0x123/0x380 netlink_unicast+0x4a3/0x770 netlink_sendmsg+0x75b/0xc90 __sock_sendmsg+0xbe/0x160 ____sys_sendmsg+0x5b2/0x7d0 ___sys_sendmsg+0xfd/0x180 __sys_sendmsg+0x124/0x1c0 do_syscall_64+0xbb/0xfd0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 [...] Allocated by task 109: kasan_save_stack+0x30/0x50 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 __kasan_kmalloc+0x7b/0x90 __kmalloc_noprof+0x2c1/0x790 neigh_alloc+0x6af/0x8f0 ___neigh_create+0x63/0xe90 mlxsw_sp_nexthop_neigh_init+0x430/0x7e0 mlxsw_sp_nexthop_type_init+0x212/0x960 mlxsw_sp_nexthop6_group_info_init.constprop.0+0x81f/0x1280 mlxsw_sp_nexthop6_group_get+0x392/0x6a0 mlxsw_sp_fib6_entry_create+0x46a/0xfd0 mlxsw_sp_router_fib6_replace+0x1ed/0x5f0 mlxsw_sp_router_fib6_event_work+0x10a/0x2a0 process_one_work+0xd57/0x1390 worker_thread+0x4d6/0xd40 kthread+0x355/0x5b0 ret_from_fork+0x1d4/0x270 ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 Freed by task 154: kasan_save_stack+0x30/0x50 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 __kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x60 __kasan_slab_free+0x43/0x70 kmem_cache_free_bulk.part.0+0x1eb/0x5e0 kvfree_rcu_bulk+0x1f2/0x260 kfree_rcu_work+0x130/0x1b0 process_one_work+0xd57/0x1390 worker_thread+0x4d6/0xd40 kthread+0x355/0x5b0 ret_from_fork+0x1d4/0x270 ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 Last potentially related work creation: kasan_save_stack+0x30/0x50 kasan_record_aux_stack+0x8c/0xa0 kvfree_call_rcu+0x93/0x5b0 mlxsw_sp_router_neigh_event_work+0x67d/0x860 process_one_work+0xd57/0x1390 worker_thread+0x4d6/0xd40 kthread+0x355/0x5b0 ret_from_fork+0x1d4/0x270 ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20

Timeline

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.15% · top 96% of all CVEs (15 Nov 2026)

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.

Affected products

• Linux · Linux

  • affected 6cf3c971dc84cb36579515ddb488919b9e9fb6de – < a2dfe6758fc63e542105bee8b17a3a7485684db0
  • affected 6cf3c971dc84cb36579515ddb488919b9e9fb6de – < 9e0a0d9eeb0dbeba2c83fa837885b19b8b9230fc
  • affected 6cf3c971dc84cb36579515ddb488919b9e9fb6de – < c437fbfd4382412598cdda1f8e2881b523668cc2
  • affected 6cf3c971dc84cb36579515ddb488919b9e9fb6de – < 4a3c569005f42ab5e5b2ad637132a33bf102cc08
  • affected 6cf3c971dc84cb36579515ddb488919b9e9fb6de – < ed8141b206bdcfd5d0b92c90832eeb77b7a60a0a
  • affected 6cf3c971dc84cb36579515ddb488919b9e9fb6de – < 675c5aeadf6472672c472dc0f26401e4fcfbf254
  • affected 6cf3c971dc84cb36579515ddb488919b9e9fb6de – < 8b0e69763ef948fb872a7767df4be665d18f5fd4

• Linux · Linux

  • affected 4.8
  • unaffected < 4.8
  • unaffected 5.10.248 – ≤ 5.10.*
  • unaffected 5.15.198 – ≤ 5.15.*
  • unaffected 6.1.160 – ≤ 6.1.*
  • unaffected 6.6.120 – ≤ 6.6.*
  • unaffected 6.12.64 – ≤ 6.12.*
  • unaffected 6.18.3 – ≤ 6.18.*
  • unaffected 6.19 – ≤ *

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• EUVD EUVD-2026-2299 (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2025-68801](https://cveledger.app/badge/CVE-2025-68801.svg)](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2025-68801)

Record last updated 19 Oct 2026, 18:05 UTC.