CVE-2026-74398: Linux

Critical severity, CVSS 9.8. EPSS: 0.8% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: addrconf: bail out of dad_failure when state is no longer POSTDAD addrconf_dad_failure() transitions ifp->state from DAD to POSTDAD via addrconf_dad_end(), which drops ifp->lock on return. The lock is re-acquired after net_info_ratelimited(). A concurrent ipv6_del_addr() can take the lock in that window, set ifp->state to DEAD and run list_del_rcu(&ifp->if_list). addrconf_dad_failure() then overwrites DEAD with ERRDAD at errdad: and schedules a new dad_work. The work calls ipv6_del_addr() again, hitting the already-poisoned list entry: general protection fault: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 4 PID: 217 Comm: kworker/4:1 Workqueue: ipv6_addrconf addrconf_dad_work RIP: 0010:ipv6_del_addr+0xe9/0x280 RAX: dead000000000122 Call Trace: addrconf_dad_stop+0x113/0x140 addrconf_dad_work+0x28c/0x430 process_one_work+0x1eb/0x3b0 worker_thread+0x4d/0x400 kthread+0x104/0x140 ret_from_fork+0x35/0x40 Fold the addrconf_dad_end() logic into addrconf_dad_failure() under a single ifp->lock critical section. The STABLE_PRIVACY branch temporarily drops ifp->lock around address regeneration, so at lock_errdad: verify the state is still POSTDAD before transitioning to ERRDAD; bail out otherwise to avoid overwriting a state set by another path while the lock was released.

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 3.10.105, before 3.11 (fixed in 3.11); from 3.14, before 5.10.261 (fixed in 5.10.261); from 5.11, before 5.15.212 (fixed in 5.15.212); from 5.16, before 6.1.178 (fixed in 6.1.178); from 6.2, before 6.6.145 (fixed in 6.6.145); from 6.7, before 6.12.97 (fixed in 6.12.97); …

Published 2026-08-15. Last modified 2026-08-17.