[PATCH] lib/rhashtable: clear stale iter->p on table restart
From: Cen Zhang
Date: Thu Jul 02 2026 - 19:25:59 EST
rhashtable_walk_start_check() has two restart paths when resuming a
walk. When iter->walker.tbl is valid, it re-validates iter->p against
the table and sets iter->p = NULL if the object is gone. When
iter->walker.tbl is NULL (table was freed during resize), it resets
slot and skip but forgets to clear iter->p.
rhashtable_walk_next() then dereferences the stale iter->p, reading
freed memory. This is a use-after-free.
Any caller that does multi-fragment rhashtable walks across
walk_stop/walk_start boundaries is affected. Concrete cases include
netlink_diag (__netlink_diag_dump in net/netlink/diag.c) and TIPC
(tipc_nl_sk_walk in net/tipc/socket.c).
Crash stack (netlink_diag):
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in rhashtable_walk_next+0x365/0x3c0
Read of size 8 at addr ffff88801a9d2438 (freed kmalloc-2k, offset 1080)
Call Trace:
rhashtable_walk_next+0x365/0x3c0
__netlink_diag_dump+0x160/0x760
netlink_diag_dump+0xc2/0x240
netlink_dump+0x5bc/0x1270
netlink_recvmsg+0x7a3/0x980
sock_recvmsg+0x1bc/0x200
__sys_recvfrom+0x1d4/0x2c0
Fixes: 5d240a8936f6 ("rhashtable: add rhashtable_walk_start_check()")
Reported-by: AutonomousCodeSecurity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Cen Zhang (Microsoft) <blbllhy@xxxxxxxxx>
---
lib/rhashtable.c | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
diff --git a/lib/rhashtable.c b/lib/rhashtable.c
--- a/lib/rhashtable.c
+++ b/lib/rhashtable.c
@@ -877,6 +877,7 @@ int rhashtable_walk_start_check(struct
rhashtable_iter *iter)
if (!iter->walker.tbl) {
iter->walker.tbl = rht_dereference_rcu(ht->tbl, ht);
iter->slot = 0;
iter->skip = 0;
+ iter->p = NULL;
return -EAGAIN;
}