CVE-2026-80742 PUBLISHED

af_packet: Don't send zero-byte data in tpacket_snd().

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 26.08.2026 Published: 03.09.2026 Updated: 03.09.2026

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

af_packet: Don't send zero-byte data in tpacket_snd().

syzbot reported a WARNING in __dev_queue_xmit() triggered via tpacket_snd():

skb_assert_len WARNING: at include/linux/skbuff.h:2753 skb_assert_len WARNING: at __dev_queue_xmit+0x21bc/0x4970 net/core/dev.c:4781

Call Trace: <TASK> dev_queue_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:3448 [inline] packet_xmit+0x243/0x310 net/packet/af_packet.c:276 tpacket_snd net/packet/af_packet.c:2907 [inline] packet_sendmsg+0x28d6/0x4eb0 net/packet/af_packet.c:3134

When sending 0-byte packets via TPACKET ring buffer on devices with no hard header (e.g. dev->hard_header_len == 0), tpacket_fill_skb() populates an skb with skb->len == 0 and returns 0. tpacket_snd() then forwards this empty skb to packet_xmit(), causing __dev_queue_xmit() to hit skb_assert_len(skb).

Similar checks exist in packet_snd() via commit dc633700f00f ("net/af_packet: check len when min_header_len equals to 0") and in packet_sendmsg_spkt() via commit 6a341729fb31 ("af_packet: Don't send zero-byte data in packet_sendmsg_spkt().").

Return -EINVAL in tpacket_fill_skb() when skb->len is zero to reject zero-length packets in tpacket_snd().

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to dde212f8622f5cb36223fff1ebd6e6f2a3dc61fe (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 80a702964467b998d254f16cc61c2c9a20540c9d (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 7521e691c7c4f2231634c95053281ac888d1f452 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 1fc70b3d513bafb16b17540178870ef46e81c0bb (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 3fa110f9e2ea96f567f2194c673c4bc327640111 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 98c5914d6b7bd4b4675535908e57dea31f1efd6a (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to f09ac5682f1bb67981fcb6ead4d3cfe439225876 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 6bcd76c134c55c697148acb5c0194e9666abdf84 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 2.6.12 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 2.6.12 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.266 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.217 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.184 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.153 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.105 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.46 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.10 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2 to * (incl.)

References