CVE Intelligence
Medium Memory corruption

CVE-2025-39852 — net/tcp: Fix socket memory leak in TCP-AO failure handling for IPv6

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/tcp: Fix socket memory leak in TCP-AO failure handling for IPv6 When tcp_ao_copy_all_matching() fails in tcp_v6_syn_recv_sock() it just exits the function. This ends up causing a memory-leak: unreferenced object 0xffff0000281a8200 (size 2496): comm "softirq", pid 0, jiffies 4295174684 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 7f 00 00 06 7f 00 00 06 00 00 00 00 cb a8 88 13 ................ 0a 00 03 61 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...a............ backtrace (crc 5ebdbe15): kmemleak_alloc+0x44/0xe0 kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x248/0x470 sk_prot_alloc+0x48/0x120 sk_clone_lock+0x38/0x3b0 inet_csk_clone_lock+0x34/0x150 tcp_create_openreq_child+0x3c/0x4a8 tcp_v6_syn_recv_sock+0x1c0/0x620 tcp_check_req+0x588/0x790 tcp_v6_rcv+0x5d0/0xc18 ip6_protocol_deliver_rcu+0x2d8/0x4c0 ip6_input_finish+0x74/0x148 ip6_input+0x50/0x118 ip6_sublist_rcv+0x2fc/0x3b0 ipv6_list_rcv+0x114/0x170 __netif_receive_skb_list_core+0x16c/0x200 netif_receive_skb_list_internal+0x1f0/0x2d0 This is because in tcp_v6_syn_recv_sock (and the IPv4 counterpart), when exiting upon error, inet_csk_prepare_forced_close() and tcp_done() need to be called. They make sure the newsk will end up being correctly free'd. tcp_v4_syn_recv_sock() makes this very clear by having the put_and_exit label that takes care of things. So, this patch here makes sure tcp_v4_syn_recv_sock and tcp_v6_syn_recv_sock have similar error-handling and thus fixes the leak for TCP-AO.

Published Sep 19, 2025 · Updated Oct 19, 2026 · Sources: CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP, NIST National Vulnerability Database, GitHub Security Advisories · CNA: Linux

Who exploits it and how urgent it is

A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.

No exploitation signal in the sources consulted so far.
How the score was calculated
  • EPSS 0.1% (30-day exploitation probability)+1
  • Technical severity (medium)+3

The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

Exploitation
Not confirmed
Not in CISA KEV — an absence of record, not proof it is unexploited.
EPSS FIRST
0.15%
ahead of 4% of scored CVEs · Oct 19, 2026
Affects
Linux
Linux and 1 more
CVSS base
5.5
Medium · 4 source(s)

CISA SSVC assessment CISA

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

Exploitation
None
none · proof-of-concept · active
Automatable
No
can an attacker script the kill-chain steps
Technical impact
Partial
partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

  • Documented patch — git.kernel.org (NIST National Vulnerability Database)
  • Documented patch — git.kernel.org (NIST National Vulnerability Database)
  • Documented patch — git.kernel.org (NIST National Vulnerability Database)

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

  1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Linux Linux, Linux Linux Kernel).
  2. Apply the fixed version or the patch documented under Remediation.
  3. Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (memory corruption), errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

VendorProductVersionsStatusSource
Linux Linux ≥ 06b22ef29591f625ef877ae00d82192938e29e60 and < 46d33c878fc0b3d7570366b2c9912395b3f4e701≥ 06b22ef29591f625ef877ae00d82192938e29e60 and < 3d2b356d994a8801acb397cafd28b13672c37ab5≥ 06b22ef29591f625ef877ae00d82192938e29e60 and < fa390321aba0a54d0f7ae95ee4ecde1358bb9234version 6.7 Vulnerable CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
Linux Linux Kernel ≥ 6.7 and < 6.12.46≥ 6.13 and < 6.16.6version 6.17-rc1version 6.17-rc2version 6.17-rc3version 6.17-rc4 Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactScored by
5.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium 1.8 3.6 nvd@nist.gov via NIST National Vulnerability Database
5.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium 1.8 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 via NIST National Vulnerability Database
5.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium — — GitHub, Inc. via GitHub Security Advisories
5.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium — — CISA-ADP via CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H (score shown at the top: nvd@nist.gov)

Weakness MITRE

Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.

CWE-401 · Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

Other CVEs with this weakness →

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

  • Local/physical vector: focus on endpoint telemetry (EDR) from affected hosts.
  • Correlate service crashes/restarts with inbound traffic; repeated crashes may indicate attempts.
endpoint telemetry (EDR)crash dumps

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

  • 2026
  • Fix documented
    Oct 19, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Affected products added · linux/linux kernel
    Oct 19, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Source status changed · Published → Modified
    Oct 19, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Record published
    Oct 19, 2026
  • Affected products added · linux/linux
    Oct 19, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • CVSS changed · 5.5
    Oct 19, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Source status changed · → Published
    Oct 19, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • SSVC assessment updated
    Oct 19, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Record created in this database
    Oct 19, 2026 · Alertas do Telegram
  • 2025
  • CVE published
    Sep 19, 2025 · Linux

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

  • 2× References added · Oct 19, 2026 – Oct 19, 2026
  • 1× Official description updated · Oct 19, 2026 – Oct 19, 2026

References

5 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

Linux
every CVE for this vendor
Memory corruption
same class
CWE-401
other pages naming this weakness

Related CVEs (same products)

  • CVE-2026-98868 dm-pcache: reject a kset that overruns its segment 1d
  • CVE-2026-98866 sched/cache: Introduce task_struct->sched_cache_grp to fix UAF 1d
  • CVE-2026-98867 dm-pcache: bound the logical key offset from persistent memory 1d
  • CVE-2026-98865 sched_ext: Don't run ops.dequeue() with a DSQ lock held 1d
  • CVE-2026-98864 sched_ext: Wait for SCX_OPSS_DISPATCHING before reenqueueing a task 1d
  • CVE-2026-98863 KVM: x86: Re-pend GET_NESTED_STATE_PAGES if getting said pages fails 1d

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2025-39852 is "net/tcp: Fix socket memory leak in TCP-AO failure handling for IPv6", rated Medium. It affects Linux (Linux); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. CVSS 5.5 describes technical severity. EPSS 0.15% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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