CVE-2026-52916

About vulnerability

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

batman-adv: frag: disallow unicast fragment in fragment

batadv_frag_skb_buffer() is called by batadv_batman_skb_recv() when a BATADV_UNICAST_FRAG packet is received. Once all fragments are collected and the packet is reassembled, batadv_recv_frag_packet() calls batadv_batman_skb_recv() again to process the defragmented payload.

A malicious sender can craft a BATADV_UNICAST_FRAG packet whose reassembled payload is itself a BATADV_UNICAST_FRAG packet (matryoshka-style nesting). Each nesting level recurses through batadv_batman_skb_recv() without bound, growing the kernel stack until it is exhausted.

Since refragmentation or fragments in fragments are not actually allowed, discard all packets which are still BATADV_UNICAST_FRAG packets after the defragmentation process.

Affected product:

AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , Amazon Linux 2 ELS , CentOS 8.4 ELS , CentOS 8.5 ELS , CentOS Stream 8 ELS , Debian 10 ELS , Oracle Linux 7 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , Ubuntu 16.04 ELS , Ubuntu 18.04 ELS , Ubuntu 20.04 ELS

Affected packages:

kernel @ 5.10.0 (+12 more)

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.