CVE-2026-68332 net: airoha: Fix potential use-after-free in airoha_ppe_deinit()
A use-after-free in the Linux kernel Airoha PPE driver allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code or escalate privileges due to missing RCU synchronization.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-68332?
CVE-2026-68332 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 10 Aug 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:
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.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-68332?
How do I fix CVE-2026-68332?
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-2026-68332 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-68332 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68332, GHSA-8c4q-qfph-ff23, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68332.