CVE-2026-72329 net/liquidio: drop cached VF pci_dev LUT
A use-after-free vulnerability in the LiquidIO network driver allows attackers to cause denial of service or execute arbitrary code via cached VF pointers.
- 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-2026-72329?
CVE-2026-72329 is a critical use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 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/liquidio: drop cached VF pci_dev LUT
The PF SR-IOV enable path caches VF pci_dev pointers in dpiring_to_vfpcidev_lut[] by iterating with pci_get_device(). Those entries do not own a reference, because the iterator drops the previous device reference on each step. The cached pointer is then dereferenced later when handling OCTEON_VF_FLR_REQUEST.
Replace the cached VF mapping with runtime lookup on the mailbox DPI ring: derive the VF index from q_no, resolve the VF via exported PCI IOV helpers, validate it with the PF pointer and VF ID, then issue pcie_flr() and drop the reference with pci_dev_put(). Remove the unused VF lookup table initialization and cleanup.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72329?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72329?
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-2026-72329 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72329 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-96435, BELL-CVE-2026-72329, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72329, GHSA-5c72-mrqj-9c57, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72329.