Use After Free in Linux

CVE-2025-39826

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: rose: convert 'use' field to refcount_t The 'use' field in struct rose_neigh is used as a reference counter but lacks atomicity. This can lead to race conditions where a rose_neigh structure is freed while still being referenced by other code paths. For example, when rose_neigh->use becomes zero during an ioctl operation via rose_rt_ioctl(), the structure may be removed while its timer is still active, potentially causing use-after-free issues. This patch changes the type of 'use' from unsigned short to refcount_t and updates all code paths to use rose_neigh_hold() and rose_neigh_put() which operate reference counts atomically.

Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (8.9th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 9th percentile — 8.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2025-39826: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-39826?
CVE-2025-39826 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2025-09-16.
How severe is CVE-2025-39826?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-39826 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.