CVE-2026-98371 PUBLISHED

xfrm: iptfs: fix runt reassembly panic from short inner tot_len

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 25.09.2026 Published: 06.10.2026 Updated: 06.10.2026

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

xfrm: iptfs: fix runt reassembly panic from short inner tot_len

When the start of an inner packet is split across two outer packets such that fewer than 4 bytes land at the end of the first one, __input_process_payload() saves those bytes as a runt and skips the iplen/iphlen validation performed for in-place packets. When the continuation packet arrives, iptfs_reassem_cont() only requires the declared inner length to be >= sizeof(ra_runt) (6) before allocating the reassembly skb with that attacker-controlled length.

However, __iptfs_iphlen() always returns the fixed minimum IP header size (20 for IPv4, 40 for IPv6), so for an inner IPv4 tot_len in [6, 19] the header-completion copy writes past the declared packet length, and the subsequent "ipremain -= copylen" underflows to ~4GB, leaving the payload copy length bounded only by blkoff (up to 64KB). At runtime the skb_put() tailroom check turns this into skb_over_panic(), i.e. an unprivileged kernel panic (DoS), reachable locally via userns+netns IPTFS SAs and remotely against IPTFS VPN gateways when the decrypted outer skb is linear (e.g. AF_PACKET taps, tun/tap delivery).

Align the runt path with the normal path by requiring the declared inner length to cover at least the IP header size. This also subsumes the previous >= sizeof(ra_runt) check, since the minimum IP header is always larger than the runt buffer.

This issue was found by the autokbug dynamic kernel fuzzer at Tencent Yunding Lab.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 07569476544681816335099929ff3494dfbf6b05 to a7018ee0ea8622ed59edc064be4e0f2c26464f53 (excl.)
  • affected from 07569476544681816335099929ff3494dfbf6b05 to 5b8afb56ccb7c014b0f1ac40341708b200443c2d (excl.)
  • affected from 07569476544681816335099929ff3494dfbf6b05 to dc33262be1fe43d0eb0b84fb58c6ed42e2f64a8c (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.14 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.14 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.54 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.8 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc4 to * (incl.)

References