Bug 2559648 (CVE-2026-98955) - CVE-2026-98955 kernel: flow_dissector: avoid u16 truncation of skb->len when computing thoff
Summary: CVE-2026-98955 kernel: flow_dissector: avoid u16 truncation of skb->len when ...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-98955
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: 2026-10-23 12:51 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-27 14:18 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-23 12:51:19 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

flow_dissector: avoid u16 truncation of skb->len when computing thoff

__skb_flow_dissect() computes key_control->thoff using:

  key_control->thoff = min_t(u16, nhoff, skb ? skb->len : hlen);

min_t(u16, ...) casts both arguments to u16 before comparing them.
Whenever skb->len (or hlen) modulo 65536 is smaller than nhoff, the
truncated length wins and thoff is set to a bogus small value, even
when the dissection succeeded. For example, an IPv4/TCP frame with
skb->len == 65540 and nhoff == 34 gets thoff == 4, so callers such as
skb_probe_transport_header() point the transport header inside the
Ethernet header.

Such skbs are not exotic:
- At the time of commit d0c081b49137 ("flow_dissector: properly cap
  thoff field"), AF_PACKET with PACKET_VNET_HDR could already build GSO
  skbs larger than 64KB (MTU checks are skipped for GSO, and
  alloc_skb_with_frags() accepted up to MAX_SKB_FRAGS (17) order-0
  pages on top of the linear part).
- BIG TCP now makes skbs larger than 64KB common.
- The following patch makes tun_get_user() dissect IFF_TAP frames
  before eth_type_trans() pulls the Ethernet header, so a GSO frame
  carrying a 65522..65535 byte L3 packet will be dissected with
  skb->len in [65536, 65549].

Compare as u32 instead. If the resulting offset cannot be represented
in the u16 key_control->thoff, cap it to U16_MAX and report the
dissection as failed rather than silently returning a wrong transport
offset. thoff is still set on failure, as some callers (such as
eth_get_headlen()) use it regardless of the return value.


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