CVE-2026-98377 PUBLISHED

vlan: require the MAC header to be present in __vlan_insert_inner_tag()

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 25.09.2026 Published: 09.10.2026 Updated: 09.10.2026

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

vlan: require the MAC header to be present in __vlan_insert_inner_tag()

__vlan_insert_inner_tag() only guarantees head room via skb_cow_head(), never that mac_len bytes of MAC header are present. Its ETH_HLEN wrappers - __vlan_insert_tag() under skb_vlan_push(), and vlan_insert_tag() under validate_xmit_vlan() on the generic transmit path - therefore rewrite the first 16 bytes at skb->data: a 12-byte memmove plus two 2-byte stores at +12 and +14. No caller supplies the bound, while the pop helpers use skb_ensure_writable()/pskb_may_pull().

An IFF_TUN device has hard_header_len == 0, so packet_snd() accepts a one-byte AF_PACKET/SOCK_RAW frame. The first vlan push only sets a hwaccel tag; the next - clsact "action vlan push" or bpf_skb_vlan_push() - enters the helper with skb->len still 1. The head comes from skbuff_small_head without __GFP_ZERO, so each push drags bytes from beyond skb->tail into the frame. After three the one-byte send leaves as 13 bytes carrying 11 bytes of uninitialised slab:

0000: 5a b3 62 12 80 88 ff ff 00 b3 62 12 81 `------------------------------' only 0x5a was sent; the rest is slab, here the top 56 bits of a linear-map address

Require the MAC header the helper rewrites to be present, so such a frame is dropped rather than transmitted.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 40a5cc4b7251c74f3341332a226d02200e96bccf (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to f42562dd027dc4ed103fae17b2206e73ea1963c4 (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to 59af43ccece4d2d8b62e9e3ccc96b6e2e793bcdc (excl.)
  • affected from 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to ab888242fce4f16f6c4d4c6ec53939ad36aa3b3a (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 2.6.12 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 2.6.12 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.112 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.55 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.9 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc5 to * (incl.)

References