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CVE-2026-99079

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Prevent stale XSK…

Risk score
76/100
CVSS
9.8 v3.1
Exploit chance (30 days)
0.2%
Published
23 Oct 2026

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What to know

What it is
A critical vulnerability in the Linux kernel allows an attacker to publish the same UMEM frame twice, potentially leading to data corruption or other security issues.
Affected
{'products': ['Linux kernel'], 'packages': [], 'versions': ['unknown']}
Fix
Check the linked advisory for details on the fix.
Exploitation
No known exploitation

Why it is Amber

  • CVSS 9.8 critical
  • Remotely exploitable without logging in
  • On your watchlist: linux kernel

References

Original description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Prevent stale XSK buffer release on refill retry When an XDP redirect to an AF_XDP socket fails because its RX ring is full, the XSK core frees the buffer. During the subsequent batched refill of a legacy cyclic RQ, mlx5e also releases the WQE's XSK buffer before allocating a replacement. If that refill succeeds only partially, a WQE left without a replacement retains its old buffer pointer. The buffer can meanwhile be allocated to another WQE. A later refill retry can then free the live buffer through the stale pointer and publish the same UMEM frame twice. Mark the WQE as released immediately after the driver-side free. The flag is already cleared when a replacement buffer is assigned, so refill retries no longer release stale pointers. The failure is silent and produces no kernel warning or splat. A standalone legacy cyclic-RQ zero-copy libxsk reproducer, using 64-byte UDP traffic offered at 12 Mpps, detected it: stock stopped after 2,854,914 packets in 4.094 seconds, with 4,542 xdp_rx_ring_full events and 64 ownership/double-publication errors. With this change it processed 356,904,225 packets in 30 seconds despite 571,405 xdp_rx_ring_full events, with no ownership or data errors.

Last activity 23 Oct 2026. Patch Forecast updates every hour.