CVE-2026-98954
net: always dissect GSO packets in __virtio_net_hdr_to_skb()
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: always dissect GSO packets in __virtio_net_hdr_to_skb() Commit 9e8db5913264 ("net: avoid false positives in untrusted gso validation") added a '&& skb->network_header' check before flow-dissecting GSO packets without VIRTIO_NET_HDR_F_NEEDS_CSUM in __virtio_net_hdr_to_skb(), because some callers (such as tun_get_user(), tun_xdp_one(), virtnet_receive_done(), and raw_verify_header()) called virtio_net_hdr_*_to_skb() before initializing skb->network_header and skb->dev. Because __alloc_skb() and __build_skb_around() zero-initialize skb->network_header to 0 (unlike mac_header and transport_header which are initialized to ~0U), those four callers always had skb->network_header == 0 and bypassed flow dissection in __virtio_net_hdr_to_skb(). More generally, skb->network_header is an offset from skb->head (where 0 is also a valid offset whenever skb_headroom(skb) is 0), not a boolean flag. Whenever the 'if (gso_type && skb->network_header)' branch was skipped, the fallback 'else if (gso_type)' only pulled nh_min_len + thlen (40 bytes for TCPv4) without dissecting the packet, without validating ip_proto or n_proto, and without setting skb->transport_header. If the packet has a malformed network header, it is not rejected and a subsequent skb_probe_transport_header() also fails, leaving skb->transport_header at ~0U (0xffff). Similarly, if an IPv4 packet carries IP options (ihl > 5) or an IPv6 packet carries extension headers, pulling only nh_min_len + thlen can leave the TCP header outside skb->head. In both cases, tcp_hdrlen(skb) in skb_gso_transport_seglen() reads out-of-bounds: BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in skb_gso_transport_seglen Read of size 2 by task poc/133 skb_gso_transport_seglen (net/core/gso.c:155) skb_gso_validate_mac_len (net/core/gso.c:270) tbf_enqueue (net/sched/sch_tbf.c:260) dev_qdisc_enqueue (net/core/dev.c:4227) __dev_queue_xmit (net/core/dev.c:4884) In addition, checking virtio_net_hdr_match_proto() only inside 'if (!skb->protocol)' before flow dissection both skipped validation when skb->protocol was pre-set by the caller and rejected VLAN-tagged frames whose outer L2 protocol is ETH_P_8021Q or ETH_P_8021AD. Fix this by: 1. Initializing skb->dev and skb->network_header (plus skb->protocol for IFF_TUN) before virtio_net_hdr_*_to_skb() in tun_get_user(), tun_xdp_one(), virtnet_receive_done(), and raw_verify_header(). In tun_get_user(), drop the redundant skb_reset_mac_header(skb) in the IFF_TUN case since __virtio_net_hdr_to_skb() unconditionally resets mac_header. 2. Removing '&& skb->network_header' and the unvalidated 'else if (gso_type)' fallback in __virtio_net_hdr_to_skb() so all GSO packets without VIRTIO_NET_HDR_F_NEEDS_CSUM are flow-dissected, have their transport header pulled into linear data, and have skb->transport_header set. 3. Moving the virtio_net_hdr_match_proto() check to after skb_flow_dissect_flow_keys_basic(), validating keys.basic.n_proto against hdr_gso_type.
Affected products and packages
CNA (CVE.org)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | affected: d5be7f632bad0f489879eed0ff4b99bd7fe0b74c … < 5f4dfdf0077730e9d3ef5b37ceb17a5a56d6f34c affected: d5be7f632bad0f489879eed0ff4b99bd7fe0b74c … < 44378d02c5aaae24b60a75fbbb539b4aa4db503d affected: dac7d4432b13d6b58923c1178b786bcda37c9e9e affected: e93384b12443c9bb6830b56b7d299beed432b865 affected: f709f7b28d76de327373598a0fda9f916c36b5e6 affected: d996573ebd5c528c613e90b7e7daa961d58fa16e affected: c375152be9dd9d6fbf6ae5ac8be337d0590f192a affected: 0dab7eb86ea06ce8c530785f1999948c6f223c96 affected: ea3fb2ce5fa794d02135f5c079e05cd6fc3f545d affected: 54ef8243c3c8e90f1ea5792e6752e021a25c8eb3 affected: 4.14.104 … < 4.15 affected: 4.19.26 … < 4.20 affected: 4.20.13 … < 4.21 affected: 4.14.226 … < 4.15 affected: 4.19.181 … < 4.20 default: unaffected |
| Linux | Linux | affected: 5.0 unaffected: 0 … < 5.0 unaffected: 7.2.11 … <= 7.2.* unaffected: 7.3 … <= * default: affected |
Open-source packages (GitHub Advisory / OSV)
net: always dissect GSO packets in __virtio_net_hdr_to_skb()
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| >= d5be7f632bad0f489879eed0ff4b99bd7fe0b74c, < 5f4dfdf0077730e9d3ef5b37ceb17a5a56d6f34c; < 44378d02c5aaae24b60a75fbbb539b4aa4db503d; >= 4.14.104, < 4.15; >= 4.19.26, < 4.20; >= 4.20.13, < 4.21; >= 4.14.226, < 4.15; >= 4.19.181, < 4.20; >= dac7d4432b13d6b58923c1178b786bcda37c9e9e; >= e93384b12443c9bb6830b56b7d299beed432b865; >= f709f7b28d76de327373598a0fda9f916c36b5e6; >= d996573ebd5c528c613e90b7e7daa961d58fa16e; >= c375152be9dd9d6fbf6ae5ac8be337d0590f192a; >= 0dab7eb86ea06ce8c530785f1999948c6f223c96; >= ea3fb2ce5fa794d02135f5c079e05cd6fc3f545d; >= 54ef8243c3c8e90f1ea5792e6752e021a25c8eb3 v4.14.336, v4.14.335, v4.14.334, v4.14.333, v4.14.332, v4.14.331, v4.14.330, v4.14.329, v4.14.328, v4.14.327, v4.14.326, v4.14.325, v4.14.324, v4.14.323, v4.14.322, v4.14.321, v4.14.320, v4.14.319, v4.14.318, v4.14.317, … (+518) | 5f4dfdf0077730e9d3ef5b37ceb17a5a56d6f34c, 44378d02c5aaae24b60a75fbbb539b4aa4db503d, 4.15, 4.20, 4.21, 4.15, 4.20 | ||
| Linux | Kernel | >= 5.0.0, < 7.2.11 | 7.2.11 |
Linux distribution status
References (5)
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git OSV
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/44378d02c5aaae24b60a75fbbb539b4aa4db503d NVD, CNA, OSV
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5f4dfdf0077730e9d3ef5b37ceb17a5a56d6f34c NVD, CNA, OSV
- https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/98xxx/CVE-2026-98954.json OSV
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98954 OSV