Bug 2436759 (CVE-2026-23057)

Summary: CVE-2026-23057 kernel: vsock/virtio: Coalesce only linear skb
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
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OS: Linux   
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-02-04 17:01:59 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

vsock/virtio: Coalesce only linear skb

vsock/virtio common tries to coalesce buffers in rx queue: if a linear skb
(with a spare tail room) is followed by a small skb (length limited by
GOOD_COPY_LEN = 128), an attempt is made to join them.

Since the introduction of MSG_ZEROCOPY support, assumption that a small skb
will always be linear is incorrect. In the zerocopy case, data is lost and
the linear skb is appended with uninitialized kernel memory.

Of all 3 supported virtio-based transports, only loopback-transport is
affected. G2H virtio-transport rx queue operates on explicitly linear skbs;
see virtio_vsock_alloc_linear_skb() in virtio_vsock_rx_fill(). H2G
vhost-transport may allocate non-linear skbs, but only for sizes that are
not considered for coalescence; see PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER in
virtio_vsock_alloc_skb().

Ensure only linear skbs are coalesced. Note that skb_tailroom(last_skb) > 0
guarantees last_skb is linear.