CVE-2026-74628 — net/x25: fix use-after-free of the socket by its timers

Affected: Linux

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

net/x25: fix use-after-free of the socket by its timers

The x25 timers are armed with mod_timer() and cancelled with timer_delete(), so a pending timer holds no reference on the socket and a cancel does not wait for a callback already running on another CPU.

x25_heartbeat_expiry() also rearms unconditionally, so it can reinstall sk->sk_timer after __x25_destroy_socket() has passed its cancel point. The following __sock_put() frees the socket while the timer is still queued, and the next expiry uses freed memory. KASAN reports a slab-use-after-free on the kmalloc-2k object freed by close().

timer_delete_sync() cannot be used here: x25_heartbeat_expiry() and x25_timer_expiry() both reach the cancels from inside the timer they would wait on, through __x25_destroy_socket() and x25_disconnect().

Arm the timers with sk_reset_timer() and cancel them with sk_stop_timer() so that an armed timer owns a reference, and release it in both expiry handlers. Rearm the heartbeat only while sk_hashed(sk) is still true, since __x25_destroy_socket() unlinks the socket before dropping it. Arm the deferred destroy timer the same way and drop its reference in x25_destroy_timer().

Reproduced on net with KASAN, with the heartbeat period shortened so the window recurs. With this patch the reproducer no longer triggers a report and /proc/net/x25 drains.

Discovered by XBOW, triaged by Baul Lee <baul.lee@xbow.com>

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CVE-2026-74628 — net/x25: fix use-after-free of the socket by its timers