Bug 2554878 (CVE-2026-98503) - CVE-2026-98503 kernel: packet: use ubuf_info completion for TX_RING packets
Summary: CVE-2026-98503 kernel: packet: use ubuf_info completion for TX_RING packets
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-98503
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-10-18 15:24 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-19 11:10 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 15:24:51 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

packet: use ubuf_info completion for TX_RING packets

tpacket_snd sends skbs with frags pointing into its ring slots. Slots
are released when skb->destructor is called.

A call to skb_orphan calls skb->destructor before the skb is freed.
This can cause the slot to be reused while still linked into the skb.

Switch to standard zerocopy completion (ubuf_info) so the slot is only
released once all references to the payload are freed or copied.
Restore skb->destructor to standard sock_wfree.

The ubuf_info completion callback can be called with a NULL skb, but
only from net_zcopy_put and related API, used by zerocopy implementations
that hold their own reference on the uarg, such as MSG_ZEROCOPY. This
uarg is only ever completed from skb_zcopy_clear, so skb is always set.

To prevent userspace from aliasing in-flight state on shared ring
slots, allocate tpacket_uarg per packet, rather than per slot. This
adds a small allocation to the transmit path. Use standard kmalloc to
allow backporting to stable kernels.

The uarg holds an sk_wmem_alloc reference, rather than an sk_refcnt
reference. packet_free_tx_ring waits on sk_wmem_alloc before freeing
the ring pages. Always allocate vec->deferred for tx_ring so page-backed
rings also wait on sk_wmem_alloc when skb_copy_ubufs drops page refs
before calling tpacket_ubuf_complete.

Drop the tx_ring.pg_vec test that tpacket_destruct_skb performed before
accessing the slot. The sk_wmem_alloc reference now guarantees that the
slot is valid. The test is also not sufficient by itself, as it reads
pg_vec without pg_vec_lock, so it can race with packet_set_ring.

As a result a slot is released when its payload is copied, which can
be before transmission (e.g., in skb_orphan_frags_rx). If copied
before skb_tx_timestamp() is called, no slot timestamp is recorded,
similar to when skb_orphan() was called early in the datapath before
this patch.

Revert the now unused previous skb_zcopy_.._nouarg infra.

Depends on commit 992cc9f94ca9 ("net/packet: defer vmalloc TX_RING
free until skbs finish").


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.