CVE-2026-74465: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix…

What to know

What it is: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix potential UAF on meter attach failure While attaching a newly created meter attach_meter() function makes the new meter visible to other CPUs but can still fail afterwards. On failure, it detaches the meter back and returns an er…
Affected: Canonical Ubuntu Linux
Fix: Apply the vendor's security update; see the linked advisory.
Exploitation: No known exploitation

Story map

Story map: the flaws, the fix, how it unfolded and what it connects to. Boxes link to the record or article.

At a glance

Canonical Ubuntu Linux: Red, act today. A vulnerability exists in NGINX Plus and NGINX Open Source when a map directive uses regex matching and the root directive or access log format references the map's regex capture variables before referencing the map output variable. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests, causing a heap buffer overflow in the NGINX worker process leading to a restart, or potential…

The flaws

CVE-2026-74465: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix… (CVSS 7.8 · EPSS 0%)
CVE-2026-93479: Heap buffer overflow can lead to remote code execution (CVSS 8.1 · EPSS 1%)
CVE-2026-15176: Heap buffer overflow can lead to remote code execution (CVSS 8.1 · EPSS 1%)
CVE-2026-97205: NGINX Plus and NGINX Open Source have a vulnerability in the ngx_http_core_module module (CVSS 8.1 · EPSS 1%)

The fix

Fix: Check the linked advisory for the concrete fix.

Who is exposed: {'products': ['NGINX Plus', 'NGINX Open Source'], 'packages': [], 'versions': []}

Where it stands

No known exploitation

How it unfolded

26 Oct, Ubuntu security notices (official): USN-8955-1: nginx vulnerabilities
3 Nov, Ubuntu security notices (official): USN-8960-1: Linux kernel (OEM) vulnerabilities
3 Nov, Ubuntu security notices (official): USN-8959-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Connects to

Same weakness: Heap buffer overflow (CWE-122). 398 other warnings in 30 days
Same product: Earlier Canonical Ubuntu Linux warnings. 83 in the last 90 days

Why it is Amber

CVSS 7.8 high
On your watchlist: linux kernel
Named in a government or vendor bulletin

Government and vendor bulletins

References

Original description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix potential UAF on meter attach failure While attaching a newly created meter attach_meter() function makes the new meter visible to other CPUs but can still fail afterwards. On failure, it detaches the meter back and returns an error. However, this is an unexpected behavior for the ovs_meter_cmd_set() that uses a plain kfree(meter) on attach failure without waiting for RCU readers to stop using it, assuming it was never visible. This is never a problem for ovs-vswitchd as it always creates meters before creating any flows that use them. But the UAF can be triggered with a custom application using uAPI: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ovs_meter_execute (net/openvswitch/meter.c:653) Read of size 8 at addr ffff88810d152650 by task meter/2508 Call Trace: ovs_meter_execute (net/openvswitch/meter.c:653) do_execute_actions (net/openvswitch/actions.c:1407) ovs_execute_actions (net/openvswitch/actions.c:1584) ovs_packet_cmd_execute (net/openvswitch/datapath.c:703) ... netlink_sendmsg (af_netlink.c:1900) Allocated by task 2519: __kasan_kmalloc (mm/kasan/common.c:398 mm/kasan/common.c:415) ovs_meter_cmd_set (net/openvswitch/meter.c:422) ... netlink_sendmsg (af_netlink.c:1900) Freed by task 2519: kfree (mm/slub.c:2705 mm/slub.c:6405 mm/slub.c:6720) ovs_meter_cmd_set (net/openvswitch/meter.c:479) ... netlink_sendmsg (af_netlink.c:1900) Fix that by making sure attach_meter() doesn't make the meter visible until all the checks are done and the function can't fail anymore. This also makes sure the "hash" value is calculated after the potential re-sizing of the table. Reported by Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative as ZDI-CAN-31642.