CVE-2026-23413 clsact: Fix use-after-free in init/destroy rollback asymmetry

What is CVE-2026-23413?

CVE-2026-23413 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 Apr 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

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

clsact: Fix use-after-free in init/destroy rollback asymmetry

Fix a use-after-free in the clsact qdisc upon init/destroy rollback asymmetry. The latter is achieved by first fully initializing a clsact instance, and then in a second step having a replacement failure for the new clsact qdisc instance. clsact_init() initializes ingress first and then takes care of the egress part. This can fail midway, for example, via tcf_block_get_ext(). Upon failure, the kernel will trigger the clsact_destroy() callback.

Commit 1cb6f0bae504 ("bpf: Fix too early release of tcx_entry") details the way how the transition is happening. If tcf_block_get_ext on the q->ingress_block ends up failing, we took the tcx_miniq_inc reference count on the ingress side, but not yet on the egress side. clsact_destroy() tests whether the {ingress,egress}_entry was non-NULL. However, even in midway failure on the replacement, both are in fact non-NULL with a valid egress_entry from the previous clsact instance.

What we really need to test for is whether the qdisc instance-specific ingress or egress side previously got initialized. This adds a small helper for checking the miniq initialization called mini_qdisc_pair_inited, and utilizes that upon clsact_destroy() in order to fix the use-after-free scenario. Convert the ingress_destroy() side as well so both are consistent to each other.

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23413?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-23413?

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-2026-23413 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23413 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-23413, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23413, GHSA-g3fm-vpqw-g4mf, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-23413, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-23413, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23413.