Bug 2525369 (CVE-2026-80603)

Summary: CVE-2026-80603 kernel: netfilter: nf_conntrack_irc: fix parse_dcc() off-by-one OOB read
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: medium    
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 netfilter component, specifically within the nf_conntrack_irc module. An off-by-one error in the parse_dcc() function can cause the system to read one byte beyond an allocated buffer. This can lead to the use of uninitialized or stale data, potentially resulting in an incorrect IP address or port being recorded in the connection tracking (conntrack) expectation for Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) connections. This could disrupt network communication or lead to incorrect routing.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-28 07:41:27 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

netfilter: nf_conntrack_irc: fix parse_dcc() off-by-one OOB read

parse_dcc() treats data_end as an inclusive end pointer, but its only
caller passes data_limit = ib_ptr + datalen, which points one past the
last valid byte.

The newline search loop iterates while tmp <= data_end, so when no
newline is present, *tmp is read at tmp == data_end, one byte beyond
the region filled by skb_header_pointer().

irc_buffer is kmalloc'd as MAX_SEARCH_SIZE + 1 bytes and datalen is
capped at MAX_SEARCH_SIZE, so the stray read does not fault.  The byte
is uninitialized or stale; if it contains an ASCII digit, simple_strtoul
will consume it and produce a wrong DCC IP or port in the conntrack
expectation.  The extra allocation byte is also a fragile guard: if the
cap or allocation size changes, this becomes a real out-of-bounds read.

Change the loop and its post-loop check to use strict less-than,
consistent with the caller's exclusive-end convention.  Update the
function comment accordingly.