syzbot


WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn (4)

Status: upstream: reported on 2026/02/21 22:24
Subsystems: net trace
[Documentation on labels]
Reported-by: syzbot+07dcf509f4c013e25dc5@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
First crash: 442d, last: 6d03h
✨ AI Jobs (1)
ID Workflow Result Correct Bug Created Started Finished Revision Error
b5bfcc28-e5ee-451d-8615-5407b0e8628b repro WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn (4) 2026/03/07 23:26 2026/03/07 23:26 2026/03/07 23:35 31e9c887f7dc24e04b3ca70d0d54fc34141844b0
Discussions (2)
Title Replies (including bot) Last reply
[syzbot] Monthly trace report (Feb 2026) 0 (1) 2026/02/23 08:39
[syzbot] [net?] [trace?] WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn (4) 0 (1) 2026/02/21 22:24
Similar bugs (5)
Kernel Title Rank 🛈 Repro Cause bisect Fix bisect Count Last Reported Patched Status
linux-6.6 WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn 13 1 125d 125d 0/2 auto-obsoleted due to no activity on 2026/04/08 16:57
upstream WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn net 13 1 1610d 1610d 0/29 closed as invalid on 2022/01/07 18:56
upstream WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn (3) fs 13 1 542d 538d 0/29 auto-obsoleted due to no activity on 2025/02/05 18:30
upstream WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn (2) acpi 13 1 636d 632d 0/29 auto-obsoleted due to no activity on 2024/11/03 21:47
linux-6.1 WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn 13 1 793d 793d 0/3 auto-obsoleted due to no activity on 2024/06/09 18:08

Sample crash report:
------------[ cut here ]------------
refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free.
WARNING: lib/refcount.c:28 at refcount_warn_saturate+0xb2/0x110 lib/refcount.c:28, CPU#0: ktimers/0/16
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 16 Comm: ktimers/0 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT_{RT,(full)} 
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 04/18/2026
RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0xb2/0x110 lib/refcount.c:28
Code: 64 e3 f1 0a 67 48 0f b9 3a eb 4a e8 f8 2b 23 fd 48 8d 3d 61 e3 f1 0a 67 48 0f b9 3a eb 37 e8 e5 2b 23 fd 48 8d 3d 5e e3 f1 0a <67> 48 0f b9 3a eb 24 e8 d2 2b 23 fd 48 8d 3d 5b e3 f1 0a 67 48 0f
RSP: 0018:ffffc90000157a28 EFLAGS: 00010246
RAX: ffffffff84a13cdb RBX: 0000000000000003 RCX: ffff88801cee0000
RDX: 0000000000000100 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffffffff8f932040
RBP: ffffc90000157b30 R08: ffff88801cee0000 R09: 0000000000000005
R10: 0000000000000100 R11: 0000000000000004 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: 00000000ffffd579 R14: ffff88805efae820 R15: ffff88805efae9b8
FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88812617d000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 0000200000404030 CR3: 0000000040e8c000 CR4: 00000000003526f0
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 call_timer_fn+0x192/0x5e0 kernel/time/timer.c:1748
 expire_timers kernel/time/timer.c:1799 [inline]
 __run_timers kernel/time/timer.c:2374 [inline]
 __run_timer_base+0x6a3/0x9f0 kernel/time/timer.c:2386
 run_timer_base kernel/time/timer.c:2395 [inline]
 run_timer_softirq+0xb7/0x170 kernel/time/timer.c:2405
 handle_softirqs+0x1de/0x6d0 kernel/softirq.c:622
 __do_softirq kernel/softirq.c:656 [inline]
 run_ktimerd+0x69/0x100 kernel/softirq.c:1151
 smpboot_thread_fn+0x541/0xa50 kernel/smpboot.c:160
 kthread+0x388/0x470 kernel/kthread.c:436
 ret_from_fork+0x514/0xb70 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:158
 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245
 </TASK>
----------------
Code disassembly (best guess):
   0:	64 e3 f1             	fs jrcxz 0xfffffff4
   3:	0a 67 48             	or     0x48(%rdi),%ah
   6:	0f b9 3a             	ud1    (%rdx),%edi
   9:	eb 4a                	jmp    0x55
   b:	e8 f8 2b 23 fd       	call   0xfd232c08
  10:	48 8d 3d 61 e3 f1 0a 	lea    0xaf1e361(%rip),%rdi        # 0xaf1e378
  17:	67 48 0f b9 3a       	ud1    (%edx),%rdi
  1c:	eb 37                	jmp    0x55
  1e:	e8 e5 2b 23 fd       	call   0xfd232c08
  23:	48 8d 3d 5e e3 f1 0a 	lea    0xaf1e35e(%rip),%rdi        # 0xaf1e388
* 2a:	67 48 0f b9 3a       	ud1    (%edx),%rdi <-- trapping instruction
  2f:	eb 24                	jmp    0x55
  31:	e8 d2 2b 23 fd       	call   0xfd232c08
  36:	48 8d 3d 5b e3 f1 0a 	lea    0xaf1e35b(%rip),%rdi        # 0xaf1e398
  3d:	67                   	addr32
  3e:	48                   	rex.W
  3f:	0f                   	.byte 0xf

Crashes (17):
Time Kernel Commit Syzkaller Config Log Report Syz repro C repro VM info Assets (help?) Manager Title
2026/04/28 00:02 upstream 254f49634ee1 ce741359 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-kasan-gce-smack-root WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/11/20 02:39 upstream 8b690556d8fe 26ee5237 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-kasan-gce-smack-root WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/11/03 19:16 upstream 6146a0f1dfae 2c50b6a9 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-kasan-gce-smack-root WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2026/03/31 07:00 bpf c369299895a5 d0af506e .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2026/01/28 05:45 bpf 63804fed149a 3029c699 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2026/01/24 03:32 bpf c072629f05d7 4f25b9b4 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/10/18 02:50 bpf a1e83d4c0361 1c8c8cd8 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/10/08 04:53 bpf 23f3770e1a53 7e2882b3 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/09/29 02:11 bpf bf40f4b87761 001c9061 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2026/03/12 09:08 bpf-next ca0f39a369c5 2d88ab01 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-next-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2026/02/19 14:10 bpf-next 4c51f90d45dc 746545b8 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-next-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/08/30 11:45 bpf-next 98857d111c53 807a3b61 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-next-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/04/04 21:04 bpf-next 06a22366d6a1 1c4febdb .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-next-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/02/15 09:42 bpf-next a4585442ade5 40a34ec9 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-bpf-next-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2026/03/30 23:17 linux-next cf7c3c02fdd0 458630d8 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-rust-kasan-gce WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/12/20 09:32 linux-next cc3aa43b44bd d6526ea3 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-linux-next-kasan-gce-root WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
2025/06/19 11:00 linux-next 6e5ab6fee68d ed3e87f7 .config console log report info [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-upstream-linux-next-kasan-gce-root WARNING: refcount bug in call_timer_fn
* Struck through repros no longer work on HEAD.