CVE-2026-74667 PUBLISHED

net/packet: reset the MAC header on the packet-socket transmit path

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 15.08.2026 Published: 22.08.2026 Updated: 22.08.2026

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

net/packet: reset the MAC header on the packet-socket transmit path

packet_parse_headers() resets the MAC header only for a SOCK_RAW frame whose socket did not bind a protocol. A protocol-bound SOCK_RAW socket, any SOCK_DGRAM frame, and the legacy SOCK_PACKET path therefore leave skb->mac_header unset here.

For frames sent via __dev_queue_xmit() this is harmless: it resets the MAC header unconditionally. But the packet-socket PACKET_QDISC_BYPASS path uses dev_direct_xmit(), which does not, so the frame reaches ndo_start_xmit() with the MAC header unset. A driver that reads eth_hdr(skb) on transmit then dereferences skb->head + (u16)~0, an out-of-bounds access ~64 KiB past the head -- the same class fixed for one consumer in commit f5089008f90c ("macsec: do not read an unset MAC header in macsec_encrypt()").

packet_parse_headers() runs only on the transmit path, where skb->data points at the start of the L2 header for every packet-socket type regardless of its length: SOCK_RAW and SOCK_PACKET carry a user-supplied header and SOCK_DGRAM has one built by dev_hard_header(). Reset the MAC header unconditionally, mirroring __dev_queue_xmit(), so the frame is anchored on the bypass path too.

Found by 0sec (https://0sec.ai) using automated source analysis; verified against source and matched to the macsec KASAN report in f5089008f90c. Compile-tested.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 75c65772c3d18447d62d3aca5f91b06c16cc25e4 to 1e43a1d66615f411d427f9df1f46dd049d9e3681 (excl.)
  • affected from 75c65772c3d18447d62d3aca5f91b06c16cc25e4 to 4057853a91fb796c4f47c7d1baf1aa085394148e (excl.)
  • affected from 75c65772c3d18447d62d3aca5f91b06c16cc25e4 to 2610ed4e86a4590234a9d70518c469751c5af231 (excl.)
  • affected from 75c65772c3d18447d62d3aca5f91b06c16cc25e4 to b47ba8fe6e1d2df8c92048de5afafd059447dc30 (excl.)
  • affected from 75c65772c3d18447d62d3aca5f91b06c16cc25e4 to 284f3e7a3f1a743fdf89e304fd1f19d5ffcff46d (excl.)
  • affected from 75c65772c3d18447d62d3aca5f91b06c16cc25e4 to 971aa7d99242bbf09513e27b7a243f0b29ff23ae (excl.)
  • affected from 75c65772c3d18447d62d3aca5f91b06c16cc25e4 to fdd4d7d52358a58e351dd9d82530c04eba8ccd7a (excl.)
  • affected from 75c65772c3d18447d62d3aca5f91b06c16cc25e4 to c2707480cfbf19c7619acc9c089d17f20869821f (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.1 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.1 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.265 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.216 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.183 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.152 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.104 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.45 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.9 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2 to * (incl.)

References