CVE-2025-13350 Use-after-free of orphaned AF_UNIX in Ubuntu builds of Linux kernel
A use-after-free in the AF_UNIX garbage collector allows local attackers to achieve privilege escalation on Ubuntu Linux kernels.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-13350?
CVE-2025-13350 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 5 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Ubuntu Linux 6.8 GA retains the legacy AF_UNIX garbage collector but backports upstream commit 8594d9b85c07 ("af_unix: Don’t call skb_get() for OOB skb"). When orphaned MSG_OOB sockets hit unix_gc(), the garbage collector still calls kfree_skb() as if OOB SKBs held two references; on Ubuntu Linux 6.8 (Noble Numbat) kernel tree, they have only the queue reference, so the buffer is freed while still reachable and subsequent queue walks dereference freed memory, yielding a reliable local privilege escalation (LPE) caused by a use-after-free (UAF). Ubuntu builds that have already taken the new GC stack from commit 4090fa373f0e, and mainline Linux kernels shipping that infrastructure are unaffected because they no longer execute the legacy collector path. This issue affects Ubuntu Linux from 6.8.0-56.58 before 6.8.0-84.84.
Weakness: CWE-416
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-13350?
How do I fix CVE-2025-13350?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2025-13350 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-13350 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-7c4q-hg77-9jfj, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-13350.