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

EPSS: 0.001 (3.2th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

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.

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.