CVE-2025-71097
CVE-2025-71097CVE-2025-71097
linux / linux_kernel
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ipv4: Fix reference count leak when using error routes with nexthop objects
When a nexthop object is deleted, it is marked as dead and then
fib_table_flush() is called to flush all the routes that are using the
dead nexthop.
The current logic in fib_table_flush() is to only flush error routes
(e.g., blackhole) when it is called as part of network namespace
dismantle (i.e., with flush_all=true). Therefore, error routes are not
flushed when their nexthop object is deleted:
# ip link add name dummy1 up type dummy
# ip nexthop add id 1 dev dummy1
# ip route add 198.51.100.1/32 nhid 1
# ip route add blackhole 198.51.100.2/32 nhid 1
# ip nexthop del id 1
# ip route show
blackhole 198.51.100.2 nhid 1 dev dummy1
As such, they keep holding a reference on the nexthop object which in
turn holds a reference on the nexthop device, resulting in a reference
count leak:
# ip link del dev dummy1
[ 70.516258] unregister
Scoring
| CVSS | 5.5 () |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| Last modified | 2026-07-14 |