CVE-2026-63920

ipv6: validate extension header length before copying to cmsg

State
Published
Severity
7.1 High
Published
Jul 19, 2026
Updated
Oct 19, 2026
Reserved
Jul 19, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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

ipv6: validate extension header length before copying to cmsg

ip6_datagram_recv_specific_ctl() builds IPV6_{HOPOPTS,DSTOPTS,RTHDR} cmsgs (and their IPV6_2292* legacy counterparts) by trusting the on-wire hdrlen byte (ptr[1]) when computing the put_cmsg() length. The length was validated only at parse time (ipv6_parse_hopopts(), etc.). An nftables payload-write expression can rewrite hdrlen after parsing and before the skb reaches recvmsg; the write itself is in-bounds but put_cmsg() then reads up to ((hdrlen+1) << 3) = 2040 bytes from an 8-byte header. nftables is reachable from an unprivileged user namespace, so this is an unprivileged slab-out-of-bounds read:

BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in put_cmsg+0x3ac/0x540 put_cmsg+0x3ac/0x540 udpv6_recvmsg+0xca0/0x1250 sock_recvmsg+0xdf/0x190 ____sys_recvmsg+0x1b1/0x620

Add ipv6_get_exthdr_len() which validates that at least two bytes are accessible before reading the hdrlen field, then checks the computed length against skb_tail_pointer(skb), returning 0 on failure. Extension headers are kept in the linear skb area by pskb_may_pull() during input, so skb_tail_pointer() is the correct bound.

Use ipv6_get_exthdr_len() at all non-AH call sites: the five standalone cmsg blocks (HbH, 2292HbH, 2292DSTOPTS x2, 2292RTHDR) and the three standard cases in the extension-header walk loop (DSTOPTS, ROUTING, default). AH retains an inline bounds check because its length formula differs ((ptr[1]+2)<<2).

The walk loop also gets a pre-read bounds check at the top to validate ptr before any case accesses ptr[0] or ptr[1].

When the walk loop detects a corrupted header, return from the function instead of continuing to process later socket options.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.17.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:HLinux

Weaknesses

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 81394827dfb72772c50d0ae3bdfa094428a5d76dAffected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 931b4a1f13408c2507719890f78f7227c34a0282Affected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 08464413e628803bd10cb1df68d0138665f2f885Affected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before a29768d56eb3798c052ad3281b05596e695a17afAffected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before 0d330eff318c0f44d4fb0ad2c2aef38f87f24c90Affected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before a35daeabb433686234b010ebf7b53778dbd6c9b8Affected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before eb18a1b1644e4cad978df2131e2bb9a2e6886992Affected
  • 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 to before dd433671fef381fdaf7b530c631e6b782d66e224Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 2.6.12Affected
  • before 2.6.12Not affected
  • 5.10.259 through 5.10.*Not affected
  • 5.15.210 through 5.15.*Not affected
  • 6.1.176 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.6.143 through 6.6.*Not affected
  • 6.12.93 through 6.12.*Not affected
  • 6.18.35 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 7.0.12 through 7.0.*Not affected
  • 7.1 and laterNot affected

References

Every record here comes from the CVE Program’s CVE List. © 1999–2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. The records are reproduced under the CVE Program terms of use.