CVE-2026-68332

Technical Description

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

net: airoha: Fix potential use-after-free in airoha_ppe_deinit()

airoha_ppe_deinit() replaces the NPU pointer with NULL via

rcu_replace_pointer() but does not wait for existing RCU readers

to exit before calling ppe_deinit() and airoha_npu_put(). This can

cause a use-after-free if a reader in an RCU read-side critical

section still holds a reference to the NPU when it is freed.

The init path (airoha_ppe_init) already calls synchronize_rcu()

after rcu_assign_pointer(), but the deinit path introduced in

commit 6abcf751bc08 ("net: airoha: Fix schedule while atomic in

airoha_ppe_deinit()") omitted the matching barrier when switching

from rcu_read_lock()/rcu_dereference() to rcu_replace_pointer().

Add synchronize_rcu() before ppe_deinit() to ensure all existing

RCU readers have completed before the NPU resources are released.

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

References