Bug 2555104 (CVE-2026-98801)

Summary: CVE-2026-98801 kernel: kernel: Denial of Service via improper socket memory reservation handling
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: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. A local user can cause a Denial of Service (DoS) or kernel memory corruption by manipulating socket memory reservation settings. Due to a lack of upper-bound validation and missing locking mechanisms when applied to User Datagram Protocol (UDP) sockets, integer overflows and race conditions can corrupt internal memory accounting. This flaw compromises system stability and may lead to a kernel crash.
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 15:54:38 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: restrict SO_RESERVE_MEM to TCP sockets and cap max value

Commit 2bb2f5fb21b0 ("net: add new socket option SO_RESERVE_MEM") and
commit d00c8ee31729 ("net: fix possible NULL deref in sock_reserve_memory")
only checked sk_has_account(sk), which is true for both TCP and UDP
sockets.

However, SO_RESERVE_MEM and sk_unused_reserved_mem() are currently only
supported by TCP:
- On UDP sockets, sk->sk_forward_alloc is protected by
  sk->sk_receive_queue.lock, whereas sock_reserve_memory() and
  sock_release_reserved_memory() only acquire lock_sock(sk). Concurrent
  UDP packet reception/release and setsockopt(SO_RESERVE_MEM) corrupt
  sk_forward_alloc and memcg accounting.
- udp_rmem_release() reclaims excess sk_forward_alloc without
  accounting for sk_unused_reserved_mem(sk).

Restrict sock_reserve_memory() to TCP sockets (sk_is_tcp(sk)) for now.
Supporting SO_RESERVE_MEM for UDP (acquiring sk_receive_queue.lock and
honoring sk_unused_reserved_mem() in udp_rmem_release()) can be done in
a future net-next series if needed.

In addition, reject val > SZ_1G with -EINVAL in
sk_setsockopt(SO_RESERVE_MEM). Without an upper bound, values near
INT_MAX cause sk_mem_pages(delta) and (pages << PAGE_SHIFT) to overflow
32-bit signed int, corrupting sk->sk_forward_alloc and
sk->sk_reserved_mem. Using a page-aligned cap (SZ_1G) ensures that the
page-rounded sk->sk_reserved_mem reported by getsockopt(SO_RESERVE_MEM)
can always be passed back to setsockopt(SO_RESERVE_MEM).