Bug 2554984 (CVE-2026-98596)

Summary: CVE-2026-98596 kernel: ipv6: Fix dst leak for uncached routes
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
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 IPv6 networking subsystem. A race condition during network device unregistration can lead to improper reference counting of uncached routes. A local attacker could exploit this flaw to cause an internal resource leak, leading to memory exhaustion and a Denial of Service (DoS).
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 15:37:26 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ipv6: Fix dst leak for uncached routes.

ip6_route_output_flags(), ip6_rt_put_flags(), and ip6_dst_check()
detect an uncached route by list_empty(&rt->dst.rt_uncached),
which replaced the static DST_NOCACHE flag check in commit
a4c2fd7f7891 ("net: remove DST_NOCACHE flag").

When a device is unregistered, rt6_uncached_list_flush_dev()
unlinks uncached routes tied to the device from rt6_uncached_list.

Previously, they were moved to another list with list_move()
(__list_del_entry() + list_add()), and since commit 98aa546af5e4
("inet: remove (struct uncached_list)->quarantine"), the routes
are just unlinked with list_del_init().

If list_del_init() runs concurrently, list_empty() evaluates to
true; ip6_route_output_flags() calls dst_hold_safe() incorrectly
and ip6_rt_put_flags() skips ip6_rt_put(), leaking dst, and thus
dev tied via rt->from as well.

The same race is partially fixed by commit 9a6f0c4d5796 ("dst:
fix races in rt6_uncached_list_del() and rt_del_uncached_list()").

Let's check rt6->dst.rt_uncached_list instead.

Note that IPv4 does not have the same issue.