Bug 2513163 (CVE-2026-68136)

Summary: CVE-2026-68136 kernel: net: gro: fix double aggregation of flush-marked skbs
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
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Priority: high    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Generic Receive Offload (GRO) networking subsystem. An attacker could exploit this by sending specially crafted network packets that cause a double aggregation of flush-marked socket buffers (skbs). This issue arises from a missing flush check, which allows already-processed packets to be re-aggregated, corrupting the internal data structure. This corruption leads to an invalid state when the system attempts to process these packets, triggering a kernel panic and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-10 12:22:43 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: gro: fix double aggregation of flush-marked skbs

Commit 0ab03f353d36 ("net-gro: Fix GRO flush when receiving a GSO
packet.") added a flush check to skb_gro_receive(), but
skb_gro_receive_list() lacks the same validation.

As a result, packets marked with NAPI_GRO_CB(skb)->flush may still be
re-aggregated.

This allows already-GRO'd packets with existing frag_list to be
re-aggregated into a new GRO session, corrupting the frag_list chain
structure. When skb_segment() attempts to unpack these malformed packets,
it encounters invalid state and triggers a kernel panic.

Scenario (Tethering/Device forwarding):
  1. Driver: Generated aggregated packet P1 via LRO with frag_list
  2. Dev A: Receives aggregated fraglist packet and flush flag set
  3. Dev A: Re-enters GRO, skb_gro_receive_list() is called
  4. Missing flush check allows re-aggregation despite flush flag
  5. Frag_list chain becomes corrupted (loops or dangling refs)
  6. Dev B: TX path calls skb_segment(), crashes on corrupted frag_list

Root cause in skb_segment():
  The check at line ~4891:
    if (hsize <= 0 && i >= nfrags && skb_headlen(list_skb) &&
        (skb_headlen(list_skb) == len || sg)) {

  When frag_list is corrupted by double aggregation, when list_skb is
  a NULL pointer from skb->next, skb_headlen(list_skb) dereference
  NULL/corrupted pointers occurs.

Call Trace:
 skb_headlen(NULL skb)
 skb_segment
 tcp_gso_segment
 tcp4_gso_segment
 inet_gso_segment
 skb_mac_gso_segment
 __skb_gso_segment
 skb_gso_segment
 validate_xmit_skb
 validate_xmit_skb_list
 sch_direct_xmit
 qdisc_restart
 __qdisc_run
 qdisc_run
 net_tx_action

Fix: Add NAPI_GRO_CB(skb)->flush validation to the early-return check in
skb_gro_receive_list(), matching the defensive programming pattern of
skb_gro_receive().