CVE-2026-74621 (GCVE-0-2026-74621)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5
Published
2026-08-22 15:32
Modified
2026-08-25 05:40
Severity ?
VLAI Severity ?
EPSS score ?
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/sched: act_ct: fix sk_buff leak when the header checks reject a packet
tcf_ct_handle_fragments() runs its header sanity checks before handing
anything to the defragmentation engine:
if (family == NFPROTO_IPV4)
err = tcf_ct_ipv4_is_fragment(skb, &frag);
else
err = tcf_ct_ipv6_is_fragment(skb, &frag);
if (err || !frag)
return err;
tcf_ct_ipv4_is_fragment() returns -EINVAL or -ENOMEM;
tcf_ct_ipv6_is_fragment() adds -EPROTO when ipv6_find_hdr() fails. None of
them frees or queues the skb, so on that path the caller still owns it.
tcf_ct_act() however funnels every non-zero return into the
ownership-transfer exit:
err = tcf_ct_handle_fragments(net, skb, family, p->zone, &defrag);
if (err)
goto out_frag;
...
out_frag:
if (err != -EINPROGRESS)
tcf_action_inc_drop_qstats(&c->common);
return TC_ACT_CONSUMED;
TC_ACT_CONSUMED means the action took ownership of the skb, so no caller
frees it - sch_handle_ingress(), sch_handle_egress() and
tcf_qevent_handle() all deliberately skip the free for that verdict. The
skb is therefore orphaned: one sk_buff plus its data buffer is leaked per
malformed packet, unbounded. Note the drop counter is already incremented
for these errors, so the statistics claim a drop that never happens.
Three different ownership states reach out_frag: today - the skb may be
queued by the defrag engine (-EINPROGRESS), already freed by
nf_ct_handle_fragments(), or still owned by us. Tell the caller which of
those it is, and free the packet ourselves in the last case, which
restores the TC_ACT_SHOT behaviour that predated the Fixes: commit.
Reproduced on v7.2-rc6 with a 54-byte frame carrying a 40-byte IPv6
header with nexthdr = 0 (hop-by-hop) and nothing after it, on a
clsact ingress chain with "action ct". kmemleak reports one leaked
232-byte skbuff_head_cache object plus its 704-byte data buffer per
packet; with this patch it reports none.
References
Impacted products
| Vendor | Product | Version | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux |
Version: 172ba7d46c202e679f3ccb10264c67416aaeb1c4 Version: 0b5b831122fc3789fff75be433ba3e4dd7b779d4 Version: 73f7da5fd124f2cda9161e2e46114915e6e82e97 Version: 3f14b377d01d8357eba032b4cabc8c1149b458b6 Version: 3f14b377d01d8357eba032b4cabc8c1149b458b6 Version: 3f14b377d01d8357eba032b4cabc8c1149b458b6 Version: 3f14b377d01d8357eba032b4cabc8c1149b458b6 Version: f5346df0591d10bc948761ca854b1fae6d2ef441 Version: 5.15.148 ≤ Version: 6.1.75 ≤ Version: 6.6.14 ≤ Version: 6.7.2 ≤ |
||
{
"containers": {
"cna": {
"affected": [
{
"defaultStatus": "unaffected",
"product": "Linux",
"programFiles": [
"net/sched/act_ct.c"
],
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},
{
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},
{
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},
{
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}
]
},
{
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"product": "Linux",
"programFiles": [
"net/sched/act_ct.c"
],
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"vendor": "Linux",
"versions": [
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "6.8"
},
{
"lessThan": "6.8",
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "0",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"lessThanOrEqual": "5.15.*",
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "5.15.217",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"lessThanOrEqual": "6.1.*",
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "6.1.184",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"lessThanOrEqual": "6.6.*",
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "6.6.152",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"lessThanOrEqual": "6.12.*",
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "6.12.104",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"lessThanOrEqual": "6.18.*",
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "6.18.45",
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},
{
"lessThanOrEqual": "7.1.*",
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "7.1.9",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"lessThanOrEqual": "*",
"status": "unaffected",
"version": "7.2",
"versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
}
]
}
],
"cpeApplicability": [
{
"nodes": [
{
"cpeMatch": [
{
"criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"versionEndExcluding": "5.15.217",
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"vulnerable": true
},
{
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"versionEndExcluding": "6.1.184",
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"vulnerable": true
},
{
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{
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{
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{
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}
],
"negate": false,
"operator": "OR"
}
]
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],
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nnet/sched: act_ct: fix sk_buff leak when the header checks reject a packet\n\ntcf_ct_handle_fragments() runs its header sanity checks before handing\nanything to the defragmentation engine:\n\n\tif (family == NFPROTO_IPV4)\n\t\terr = tcf_ct_ipv4_is_fragment(skb, \u0026frag);\n\telse\n\t\terr = tcf_ct_ipv6_is_fragment(skb, \u0026frag);\n\tif (err || !frag)\n\t\treturn err;\n\ntcf_ct_ipv4_is_fragment() returns -EINVAL or -ENOMEM;\ntcf_ct_ipv6_is_fragment() adds -EPROTO when ipv6_find_hdr() fails. None of\nthem frees or queues the skb, so on that path the caller still owns it.\n\ntcf_ct_act() however funnels every non-zero return into the\nownership-transfer exit:\n\n\terr = tcf_ct_handle_fragments(net, skb, family, p-\u003ezone, \u0026defrag);\n\tif (err)\n\t\tgoto out_frag;\n\t...\nout_frag:\n\tif (err != -EINPROGRESS)\n\t\ttcf_action_inc_drop_qstats(\u0026c-\u003ecommon);\n\treturn TC_ACT_CONSUMED;\n\nTC_ACT_CONSUMED means the action took ownership of the skb, so no caller\nfrees it - sch_handle_ingress(), sch_handle_egress() and\ntcf_qevent_handle() all deliberately skip the free for that verdict. The\nskb is therefore orphaned: one sk_buff plus its data buffer is leaked per\nmalformed packet, unbounded. Note the drop counter is already incremented\nfor these errors, so the statistics claim a drop that never happens.\n\nThree different ownership states reach out_frag: today - the skb may be\nqueued by the defrag engine (-EINPROGRESS), already freed by\nnf_ct_handle_fragments(), or still owned by us. Tell the caller which of\nthose it is, and free the packet ourselves in the last case, which\nrestores the TC_ACT_SHOT behaviour that predated the Fixes: commit.\n\nReproduced on v7.2-rc6 with a 54-byte frame carrying a 40-byte IPv6\nheader with nexthdr = 0 (hop-by-hop) and nothing after it, on a\nclsact ingress chain with \"action ct\". kmemleak reports one leaked\n232-byte skbuff_head_cache object plus its 704-byte data buffer per\npacket; with this patch it reports none."
}
],
"metrics": [
{
"cvssV3_1": {
"baseScore": 7.5,
"baseSeverity": "HIGH",
"vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
"version": "3.1"
},
"scenarios": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "AV:N - The leak is triggered in tcf_ct_act() on the packet datapath (netif_receive_skb \u2192 sch_handle_ingress/egress \u2192 tc_run \u2192 tcf_classify); on OVN/Kubernetes/SDN gateways and mlx5-offload nodes with act_ct on clsact, a remote peer sends malformed IP packets with no local access required.\nAC:L - The attacker fully controls packet contents; a 54-byte IPv6 frame with nexthdr=0 (hop-by-hop) and no trailing data deterministically makes ipv6_find_hdr() return -EPROTO, leaking one skb per packet without races or uncontrollable layout dependencies.\nPR:N - Installing act_ct requires CAP_NET_ADMIN, but triggering the leak on an already-configured internet-facing or tenant-facing gateway needs no target credentials; a remote attacker only sends crafted malformed IP packets, matching CNA precedent for packet-driven act_ct issues (e.g., CVE-2026-72057).\nUI:N - Exploitation requires only attacker-generated malformed packets reaching a host with act_ct on clsact/ingress or egress; no victim login, mount, or other interactive action is needed beyond normal network traffic processing.\nS:U - The leaked sk_buff objects remain within the host kernel memory domain; this is not a VM escape, sandbox breakout, or IOMMU boundary bypass, only unbounded kernel heap consumption on the affected node.\nC:N - This is a pure sk_buff ownership leak on an error path; skb memory is orphaned, not exposed to the attacker, with no out-of-bounds read, use-after-free, or other disclosure primitive.\nI:N - The flaw only fails to kfree_skb() when header validation rejects a packet; it does not corrupt, overwrite, or modify any memory contents and provides no write or code-execution primitive.\nA:H - Each malformed packet leaks one sk_buff plus its data buffer (~936 bytes); sustained remote flooding causes unbounded kernel memory exhaustion and OOM denial of service, matching CNA precedent for repeatable network-triggered skb leaks (e.g., CVE-2026-52974)."
}
]
}
],
"providerMetadata": {
"dateUpdated": "2026-08-25T05:40:45.894Z",
"orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
"shortName": "Linux"
},
"references": [
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b5dbecc2016e1692fd1c2532af9c41ba729cb747"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/23e97d594ddd0153020c506d5041048fbde1beb4"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/737873a59905a54ca0d2d127ef882f3f88bf4379"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/47d99828591d0fe8be4b9c8992ff3b8e47968db9"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b47bb899e04b5407c5a63fe88d4b6676586a6e84"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/439d3e404f9d5e515911cc8132cde198b337c19e"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8a7ed561671aa6a911a2de99e59ef670a4d0b1df"
}
],
"title": "net/sched: act_ct: fix sk_buff leak when the header checks reject a packet",
"x_generator": {
"engine": "bippy-1.2.0"
}
}
},
"cveMetadata": {
"assignerOrgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
"assignerShortName": "Linux",
"cveId": "CVE-2026-74621",
"datePublished": "2026-08-22T15:32:04.990Z",
"dateReserved": "2026-08-15T05:44:03.921Z",
"dateUpdated": "2026-08-25T05:40:45.894Z",
"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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