A use-after-free flaw was found in reconn_set_ipaddr_from_hostname in fs/cifs/connect.c in the Linux kernel. The issue occurs when it forgets to set the free pointer server->hostname to NULL, leading to an invalid pointer request.
The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.