Bug 2527879 (CVE-2026-80742)

Summary: CVE-2026-80742 kernel: af_packet: Don't send zero-byte data in tpacket_snd()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedCC: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's `af_packet` (Address Family Packet) component. A local attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending specially crafted zero-byte packets through the `TPACKET` ring buffer on devices without a hard header. This improper handling of zero-length packets can cause a kernel warning and potentially lead to a system crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
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Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-03 08:44:01 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

af_packet: Don't send zero-byte data in tpacket_snd().

syzbot reported a WARNING in __dev_queue_xmit() triggered via tpacket_snd():

skb_assert_len
WARNING: at include/linux/skbuff.h:2753 skb_assert_len
WARNING: at __dev_queue_xmit+0x21bc/0x4970 net/core/dev.c:4781

Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 dev_queue_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:3448 [inline]
 packet_xmit+0x243/0x310 net/packet/af_packet.c:276
 tpacket_snd net/packet/af_packet.c:2907 [inline]
 packet_sendmsg+0x28d6/0x4eb0 net/packet/af_packet.c:3134

When sending 0-byte packets via TPACKET ring buffer on devices with no
hard header (e.g. dev->hard_header_len == 0), tpacket_fill_skb()
populates an skb with skb->len == 0 and returns 0. tpacket_snd() then
forwards this empty skb to packet_xmit(), causing __dev_queue_xmit() to
hit skb_assert_len(skb).

Similar checks exist in packet_snd() via commit dc633700f00f
("net/af_packet: check len when min_header_len equals to 0") and in
packet_sendmsg_spkt() via commit 6a341729fb31 ("af_packet: Don't send
zero-byte data in packet_sendmsg_spkt().").

Return -EINVAL in tpacket_fill_skb() when skb->len is zero to reject
zero-length packets in tpacket_snd().