Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sctp: detect and prevent...
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
sctp: detect and prevent references to a freed transport in sendmsg
sctp_sendmsg() re-uses associations and transports when possible by
doing a lookup based on the socket endpoint and the message destination
address, and then sctp_sendmsg_to_asoc() sets the selected transport in
all the message chunks to be sent.
There's a possible race condition if another thread triggers the removal
of that selected transport, for instance, by explicitly unbinding an
address with setsockopt(SCTP_SOCKOPT_BINDX_REM), after the chunks have
been set up and before the message is sent. This can happen if the send
buffer is full, during the period when the sender thread temporarily
releases the socket lock in sctp_wait_for_sndbuf().
This causes the access to the transport data in
sctp_outq_select_transport(), when the association outqueue is flushed,
to result in a use-after-free read.
This change avoids this scenario by having sctp_transport_free() signal
the freeing of the transport, tagging it as "dead". In order to do this,
the patch restores the "dead" bit in struct sctp_transport, which was
removed in
commit 47faa1e4c50e ("sctp: remove the dead field of sctp_transport").
Then, in the scenario where the sender thread has released the socket
lock in sctp_wait_for_sndbuf(), the bit is checked again after
re-acquiring the socket lock to detect the deletion. This is done while
holding a reference to the transport to prevent it from being freed in
the process.
If the transport was deleted while the socket lock was relinquished,
sctp_sendmsg_to_asoc() will return -EAGAIN to let userspace retry the
send.
The bug was found by a private syzbot instance (see the error report [1]
and the C reproducer that triggers it [2]).
Impact
Memory is accessed after it has been freed, leading to undefined behavior in native code. Typical impact: memory corruption, crash, or potential code execution.
CVE-2025-23142 has a CVSS score of 7.8 (High). The vector is requires local access, low privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. No fixed version is listed yet, so configuration controls and monitoring matter more in the interim.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
Already deployed Kodem?
See it in your environmentNew to Kodem? Get a demo →Remediation advice
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2025-23142? CVE-2025-23142 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability. No fixed version is listed yet. Memory is accessed after it has been freed, leading to undefined behavior in native code.
- How severe is CVE-2025-23142? CVE-2025-23142 has a CVSS score of 7.8 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2025-23142? No fixed version is listed for CVE-2025-23142 yet. Monitor the advisory for updates and apply mitigations in the interim.
- Is CVE-2025-23142 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2025-23142 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2025-23142 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.