CVE-2026-31700 PUBLISHED

net/packet: fix TOCTOU race on mmap'd vnet_hdr in tpacket_snd()

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 09.03.2026 Published: 01.05.2026 Updated: 01.05.2026

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

net/packet: fix TOCTOU race on mmap'd vnet_hdr in tpacket_snd()

In tpacket_snd(), when PACKET_VNET_HDR is enabled, vnet_hdr points directly into the mmap'd TX ring buffer shared with userspace. The kernel validates the header via __packet_snd_vnet_parse() but then re-reads all fields later in virtio_net_hdr_to_skb(). A concurrent userspace thread can modify the vnet_hdr fields between validation and use, bypassing all safety checks.

The non-TPACKET path (packet_snd()) already correctly copies vnet_hdr to a stack-local variable. All other vnet_hdr consumers in the kernel (tun.c, tap.c, virtio_net.c) also use stack copies. The TPACKET TX path is the only caller of virtio_net_hdr_to_skb() that reads directly from user-controlled shared memory.

Fix this by copying vnet_hdr from the mmap'd ring buffer to a stack-local variable before validation and use, consistent with the approach used in packet_snd() and all other callers.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 1d036d25e5609ba73fee6a88db01c306b140d512 to 74e2db36fe50e3ad9d5300d7fd0e6e2a15a6d121 (excl.)
  • affected from 1d036d25e5609ba73fee6a88db01c306b140d512 to 3a1bf9116ea31470b89692585c3910dfe830dcdd (excl.)
  • affected from 1d036d25e5609ba73fee6a88db01c306b140d512 to 28324a3b62d9ce7f9bdd65a8ce63f382041d1b27 (excl.)
  • affected from 1d036d25e5609ba73fee6a88db01c306b140d512 to 48a6ef291a17639e1b6ae0fbe9c8b2bb87d7804b (excl.)
  • affected from 1d036d25e5609ba73fee6a88db01c306b140d512 to 2c054e17d9d41f1020376806c7f750834ced4dc5 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 4.6 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 4.6 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.136 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.84 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.25 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0.2 to 7.0.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1-rc1 to * (incl.)

References