Bug 2555240 (CVE-2026-98852) - CVE-2026-98852 kernel: net: extend IPv6 exthdr detection of tunneled packets
Summary: CVE-2026-98852 kernel: net: extend IPv6 exthdr detection of tunneled packets
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-98852
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 16:04 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-23 11:17 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

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


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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-18 16:04:02 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: extend IPv6 exthdr detection of tunneled packets

Commit c4336a07eb6b ("net: correctly handle tunneled traffic on IPV6_CSUM
GSO fallback") split skb_gso_has_extension_hdr() into mutually exclusive
branches on skb->encapsulation. This did not yet address all paths:

1. With skb->encapsulation set, the outer header is not checked. IPv6
   tunnels such as ip6_gre and ip6_tunnel add an outer Destination
   Options header by default (encap_limit). Their GSO packets skip
   software GSO, then skb_csum_hwoffload_help() sees the outer extension
   header and calls skb_checksum_help() on the GSO skb, which warns and
   drops it.

2. Tunnels over IPv6 without an outer transport header, such as
   ip6_tunnel, leave skb->transport_header at the inner transport
   header. skb_network_header_len() then spans the outer IPv6, tunnel
   and inner IP headers, a false positive.

3. UDP tunnels without an inner network header, such as SCTP-in-UDP or
   PSP, have no inner IPv6 header to check. Decide on the outer header
   alone.

4. Directly dereferencing inner_ip_hdr(skb)->version without
   skb_header_pointer() is unsafe.

Instead, check ipv6_ext_hdr(nexthdr) on the outer IPv6 header and, if
set, on the inner IPv6 header. Read the headers with skb_header_pointer().
Keep the skb_network_header_len() check when !skb->encapsulation to also
catch encapsulated packets without skb->encapsulation (e.g., virtio).

Use the same helper in skb_csum_hwoffload_help(). Its open coded test
has the false positive of (2) and ignores the inner header.

Background: checksum offload of tunneled packets invariants:

Non-GSO skb:
- If the inner packet is CHECKSUM_PARTIAL, Local Checksum Offload computes
  the outer checksum in software and the device offloads only the inner L4
  checksum.
- If the inner packet is CHECKSUM_NONE (e.g., SCTP-in-UDP, ESP-in-UDP,
  Remote Checksum Offload), the device offloads the outer UDP or GRE
  checksum instead.

GSO skb:
- A device with NETIF_F_GSO_UDP_TUNNEL_CSUM or NETIF_F_GSO_GRE_CSUM
  computes both inner and outer checksums per segment.
  The outer checksum is seeded with only the pseudo-header checksum.

A NETIF_F_IPV6_CSUM device must parse through the outer headers to
reach the inner ones.


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