CVE-2025-71097
Medium · 5.5CVSS
5.5
EPSS
0.1%
Published
Jan 13, 2026
CISA due date
—
The record
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_netdevice: waiting for dummy1 to become free. Usage count = 2 Fix by flushing error routes when their nexthop is marked as dead. IPv6 does not suffer from this problem.
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Introduced | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Kernel | 5.3.0 | 5.10.248 |
| Mageia:9 | kernel | 0 | 6.6.120-1.mga9 |
| Mageia:9 | kernel-linus | 0 | 6.6.120-1.mga9 |
| Mageia:9 | kmod-virtualbox | 0 | 7.1.14-14.mga9 |
| Mageia:9 | kmod-xtables-addons | 0 | 3.24-88.mga9 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | dtb-aarch64 | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-azure | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1.160000.2.7 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-kvmsmall | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-obs-qa | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-rt | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.12.0-160000.26.1 |
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