Cloudanix VulnDB

CVE-2026-63894

High · 7.8

CVSS

7.8

EPSS

0.2%

Published

Jul 19, 2026

CISA due date

—

Cloudanix analysis

Next patch cycle SSVC: Track

A bug in Linux USB gadget handling could let a program with special device access crash the system or corrupt memory.

Exploitation
Local Privilege
Attacker needs
Local User
Complexity
Moderate
Impact
Full Compromise
Component
OS kernel
Class
Use After Free
Remediation
Patch
Effort
Medium
Patch risk
Low

What it actually does

Use-after-free in the Linux kernel FunctionFS USB gadget driver where priv->req retains a pointer to a freed usb_request, allowing usb_ep_dequeue to be called on invalid memory during DMABUF detach or file release under concurrent completion.

Why it matters to the business

Local attackers with access to gadget device nodes could trigger kernel crashes or memory corruption on Linux systems using USB gadget mode with DMABUF transfers, affecting device firmware and embedded deployments.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker with access to the FunctionFS device node submits a DMABUF transfer then races a completion against a FUNCTIONFS_DMABUF_DETACH ioctl or close, causing the cancel path to pass a freed request pointer to usb_ep_dequeue on SG-capable UDCs.

How to fix it

Apply the upstream kernel fix that moves usb_ep_free_request into ffs_dmabuf_cleanup under eps_lock, clears priv->req only when it still matches, and ensures the free always occurs in the work handler regardless of queue success.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm the patch by inspecting f_fs.c for ffs_dmabuf_cleanup handling of priv->req under eps_lock and absence of inline frees in completion or error paths; retest with KASAN on dummy_hcd detach and close sequences.

Typical attack path

  1. Obtain access to the FunctionFS device node via the privileged gadget daemon
  2. Issue a DMABUF transfer submission via ffs_dmabuf_transfer
  3. Trigger concurrent request completion and either detach ioctl or file release
  4. Observe the stale priv->req pointer dereferenced in the UDC dequeue path

How to detect it

Examine kernel logs and crash dumps for use-after-free reports involving f_fs, usb_ep_dequeue, and UDC drivers such as chipidea or cdnsp on detach or close paths; correlate with FunctionFS device node activity.

What your security team should do

  • Update to a kernel containing the f_fs DMABUF lifetime fix
  • Restrict FunctionFS device node ownership and permissions to the minimal trusted gadget daemon
  • Enable KASAN or similar instrumentation on development and test systems exposing FunctionFS

The record

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usb: gadget: f_fs: serialize DMABUF cancel against request completion ffs_epfile_dmabuf_io_complete() calls usb_ep_free_request() on the completed request but leaves priv->req, the back-pointer that ffs_dmabuf_transfer() set on submission, pointing at the freed memory. A later FUNCTIONFS_DMABUF_DETACH ioctl or ffs_epfile_release() on the close path still sees priv->req non-NULL under ffs->eps_lock: if (priv->ep && priv->req) usb_ep_dequeue(priv->ep, priv->req); so usb_ep_dequeue() is called on a freed usb_request. On dummy_hcd the dequeue path only walks a live queue and pointer-compares, so the freed pointer reads without faulting and KASAN requires an explicit check at the FunctionFS call site to surface the use-after-free. On SG-capable in-tree UDCs the dequeue path dereferences the supplied request immediately: * chipidea's ep_dequeue() does container_of(req, struct ci_hw_req, req) and reads hwreq->req.status before acquiring its own lock. * cdnsp's cdnsp_gadget_ep_dequeue() reads request->status first. The narrower option of clearing priv->req via cmpxchg() in the completion does not close the race: the completion runs without eps_lock, so a cancel path holding eps_lock can still observe priv->req non-NULL, race a concurrent completion that clears and frees, and pass the freed pointer to usb_ep_dequeue(). A slightly longer fix that moves the free into the cleanup work is needed. Same class of lifetime race as the recent usbip-vudc timer fix [1]. Take eps_lock in the sole place that mutates priv->req from the callback direction by moving usb_ep_free_request() out of the completion into ffs_dmabuf_cleanup(), the existing work handler scheduled by ffs_dmabuf_signal_done() on ffs->io_completion_wq. Clear priv->req there under eps_lock before freeing, and only clear if priv->req still names our request (a subsequent ffs_dmabuf_transfer() on the same attachment may have queued a new one). This keeps the existing dummy_hcd sync-dequeue invariant: the completion callback is still invoked by the UDC without eps_lock held (dummy_hcd drops its own lock before calling the callback), and the callback now takes no f_fs lock at all. Serialization against the cancel path happens in cleanup, which runs from the workqueue with no f_fs lock held on entry. The priv ref count protects the containing ffs_dmabuf_priv: ffs_dmabuf_transfer() takes a ref via ffs_dmabuf_get(), cleanup drops it via ffs_dmabuf_put(), so priv stays live for the cleanup even after the cancel path's list_del + ffs_dmabuf_put. The ffs_dmabuf_transfer() error path no longer frees usb_req inline: fence->req and fence->ep are set before usb_ep_queue(), so ffs_dmabuf_cleanup() (scheduled by the error-path ffs_dmabuf_signal_done()) owns the free regardless of whether the queue succeeded. Reproduced under KASAN on both detach and close paths against dummy_hcd with an observability hook (kasan_check_byte(priv->req) immediately before usb_ep_dequeue) at the two FunctionFS cancel sites to surface the stale-pointer access; the hook is not part of this patch. The KASAN allocator / free stacks in the captured splats identify the same request: alloc in dummy_alloc_request, free in dummy_timer, fault reached from ffs_epfile_release (close) and from the FUNCTIONFS_DMABUF_DETACH ioctl (detach). With the patch applied, both paths are silent under the same hook. The bug is reached from the FunctionFS device node, which in real deployments is owned by the privileged gadget daemon (adbd, UMS, composite gadget services, etc.); it is not reachable from unprivileged userspace or from a USB host on the cable. FunctionFS mounts default to GLOBAL_ROOT_UID, but the filesystem supports uid=, gid=, and fmode= delegation to a non-root gadget daemon, so on real deployments the attacker may be a less-privileged service rather than root.

Affected packages

Ecosystem Package Introduced Fixed