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CVE-2026-74478

Updated on 15 Aug 2026

Severity

9.8 Critical severity

Details

CVSS score
9.8
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Links
NISTCIRCLRHELUbuntu

Overview

About vulnerability

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

um: vector: fix use-after-free in vector_mmsg_rx()

When vector_mmsg_rx() discards a packet whose overlay header fails verify_header(), it frees the skb and continues the loop:

if (header_check < 0) { dev_kfree_skb_irq(skb); vp->estats.rx_encaps_errors++; continue; }

The normal and short-packet paths fall through to the bottom of the loop body, which clears the consumed slot and advances the cursors:

(*skbuff_vector) = NULL; mmsg_vector++; skbuff_vector++;

The verify_header() < 0 path skips that via continue, so the freed skb is left in skbuff_vector[] and the cursors do not advance. The next iteration reads the same slot, gets the freed skb, and frees it again, producing a refcount underflow / use-after-free in the RX path.

Discard the slot the same way the other paths do before continuing.

Only transports whose verify_header() can return negative are affected: GRE and L2TPv3 do so on a cookie/session-id mismatch (raw/tap do not), so any peer on such a transport can trigger it without authentication.

Details

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 , Debian 11 ELS , Oracle Linux 7 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , TuxCare 9.8 ESU , Ubuntu 20.04 ELS
Affected packages:
linux @ 5.10.269 (+10 more)

Fixes

KernelCare state

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.

Operating system Status Covered kernels
Debian 12 Will Not Fix
43 kernels
  • 6.1.38-1
  • 6.1.38-2
  • 6.1.38-4
  • 6.1.52-1
  • 6.1.55-1
  • 6.1.64-1
  • 6.1.66-1
  • 6.1.69-1
  • 6.1.76-1
  • 6.1.27-1
  • 6.1.67-1
  • 6.1.85-1
  • 6.1.90-1
  • 6.1.94-1
  • 6.1.99-1
  • 6.1.106-3
  • 6.1.112-1
  • 6.1.115-1
  • 6.1.119-1
  • 6.1.123-1
  • 6.1.128-1
  • 6.1.124-1
  • 6.1.129-1
  • 6.1.133-1
  • 6.1.135-1
  • 6.1.137-1
  • 6.1.140-1
  • 6.1.139-1
  • 6.1.147-1
  • 6.1.148-1
  • 6.1.153-1
  • 6.1.158-1
  • 6.1.159-1
  • 6.1.162-1
  • 6.1.164-1
  • 6.1.170-1
  • 6.1.170-3
  • 6.1.172-1
  • 6.1.174-1
  • 6.1.170-2
  • 6.1.176-1
  • 6.1.177-1
  • 6.1.180-1
Debian 13 Will Not Fix
15 kernels
  • 6.12.85-1
  • 6.12.86-1
  • 6.12.88-1
  • 6.12.74-2
  • 6.12.73-1
  • 6.12.63-1
  • 6.12.69-1
  • 6.12.74-1
  • 6.12.90-1
  • 6.12.90-2
  • 6.12.94-1
  • 6.12.95-1
  • 6.12.96-1
  • 6.12.100-1
  • 6.12.101-1
Ubuntu 22.04 Planned —
Ubuntu 22.04 AWS Planned —
Ubuntu 22.04 Azure Planned —