CVE-2026-31429 (GCVE-0-2026-31429)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5
Published
2026-04-20 09:43
Modified
2026-04-20 09:43
Severity ?
VLAI Severity ?
EPSS score ?
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: skb: fix cross-cache free of KFENCE-allocated skb head
SKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE is intentionally set to a non-power-of-2
value (e.g. 704 on x86_64) to avoid collisions with generic kmalloc
bucket sizes. This ensures that skb_kfree_head() can reliably use
skb_end_offset to distinguish skb heads allocated from
skb_small_head_cache vs. generic kmalloc caches.
However, when KFENCE is enabled, kfence_ksize() returns the exact
requested allocation size instead of the slab bucket size. If a caller
(e.g. bpf_test_init) allocates skb head data via kzalloc() and the
requested size happens to equal SKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE, then
slab_build_skb() -> ksize() returns that exact value. After subtracting
skb_shared_info overhead, skb_end_offset ends up matching
SKB_SMALL_HEAD_HEADROOM, causing skb_kfree_head() to incorrectly free
the object to skb_small_head_cache instead of back to the original
kmalloc cache, resulting in a slab cross-cache free:
kmem_cache_free(skbuff_small_head): Wrong slab cache. Expected
skbuff_small_head but got kmalloc-1k
Fix this by always calling kfree(head) in skb_kfree_head(). This keeps
the free path generic and avoids allocator-specific misclassification
for KFENCE objects.
References
| URL | Tags | |
|---|---|---|
Impacted products
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"product": "Linux",
"programFiles": [
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],
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"versions": [
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"version": "0",
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"status": "unaffected",
"version": "6.12.82",
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{
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"status": "unaffected",
"version": "6.18.23",
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{
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"status": "unaffected",
"version": "6.19.13",
"versionType": "semver"
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{
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"version": "7.0",
"versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
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"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nnet: skb: fix cross-cache free of KFENCE-allocated skb head\n\nSKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE is intentionally set to a non-power-of-2\nvalue (e.g. 704 on x86_64) to avoid collisions with generic kmalloc\nbucket sizes. This ensures that skb_kfree_head() can reliably use\nskb_end_offset to distinguish skb heads allocated from\nskb_small_head_cache vs. generic kmalloc caches.\n\nHowever, when KFENCE is enabled, kfence_ksize() returns the exact\nrequested allocation size instead of the slab bucket size. If a caller\n(e.g. bpf_test_init) allocates skb head data via kzalloc() and the\nrequested size happens to equal SKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE, then\nslab_build_skb() -\u003e ksize() returns that exact value. After subtracting\nskb_shared_info overhead, skb_end_offset ends up matching\nSKB_SMALL_HEAD_HEADROOM, causing skb_kfree_head() to incorrectly free\nthe object to skb_small_head_cache instead of back to the original\nkmalloc cache, resulting in a slab cross-cache free:\n\n kmem_cache_free(skbuff_small_head): Wrong slab cache. Expected\n skbuff_small_head but got kmalloc-1k\n\nFix this by always calling kfree(head) in skb_kfree_head(). This keeps\nthe free path generic and avoids allocator-specific misclassification\nfor KFENCE objects."
}
],
"providerMetadata": {
"dateUpdated": "2026-04-20T09:43:03.194Z",
"orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
"shortName": "Linux"
},
"references": [
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/60313768a8edc7094435975587c00c2d7b834083"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2d64618ea846d8d033477311f805ca487d6a6696"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/474e00b935db250cac320d10c1d3cf4e44b46721"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0f42e3f4fe2a58394e37241d02d9ca6ab7b7d516"
}
],
"title": "net: skb: fix cross-cache free of KFENCE-allocated skb head",
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"cveMetadata": {
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"cveId": "CVE-2026-31429",
"datePublished": "2026-04-20T09:43:03.194Z",
"dateReserved": "2026-03-09T15:48:24.089Z",
"dateUpdated": "2026-04-20T09:43:03.194Z",
"state": "PUBLISHED"
},
"dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
"dataVersion": "5.2"
}
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Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or seen somewhere by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability is confirmed from an analyst perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: This vulnerability was exploited and seen by the user reporting the sighting.
- Patched: This vulnerability was successfully patched by the user reporting the sighting.
- Not exploited: This vulnerability was not exploited or seen by the user reporting the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expresses doubt about the veracity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: This vulnerability was not successfully patched by the user reporting the sighting.
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