CVE-2026-98021

net: reject oversized tx_queue_len at netlink parse time

State
Published
Severity
Not scored
Published
Sep 25, 2026
Updated
Oct 21, 2026
Reserved
Sep 25, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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

net: reject oversized tx_queue_len at netlink parse time

rtnl_create_link() assigns IFLA_TXQLEN directly to dev->tx_queue_len without going through netif_change_tx_queue_len(), so a device created with "ip link add ... txqueuelen 500000" bypasses the S16_MAX cap and still triggers the oversized ring allocations in pfifo_fast, tun and tap. The veth peer nest (rtnl_nla_parse_ifinfomsg()) and the RTM_NEWLINK-on-existing-device path reach the same sinks.

Enforce the cap in ifla_policy instead: IFLA_TXQLEN becomes NLA_POLICY_FULL_RANGE(NLA_U32, &txqlen_range) with txqlen_range = { .min = 0, .max = S16_MAX }. All netlink consumers parse against this policy - rtnl_setlink(), rtnl_newlink() (create and change), and the veth peer nest - so every netlink path is capped at parse time and rejects the attribute with -ERANGE plus a proper "integer out of range" extack message before any device state is modified (the RTM_SETLINK half-application wart is gone with it).

Document the bound in the rt-link.yaml netlink spec.

Conditions to recreate the bug: - CONFIG_NET_SCHED=y, CONFIG_VETH=y, CONFIG_USER_NS=y, CONFIG_NET_NS=y. - Unprivileged user in a fresh user+net namespace (unshare -Urn): ip link add v0 txqueuelen 500000 type veth peer name v1 -> on the fixed kernel this is rejected with -ERANGE ("integer out of range" extack) instead of installing an oversized tx_queue_len that later inflates pfifo_fast/tun/tap ring allocations. - ip link set v0 txqueuelen 500000 is likewise rejected at parse time.

Scores

The record has no CVSS score.

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 38f7b870d4a6a5d3ec21557e849620cb7d032965 to before 26ee5f99ffe7ab98e635071290eff14192e9e34aAffected
  • 38f7b870d4a6a5d3ec21557e849620cb7d032965 to before 45ca9f59b6c7ea70e0a17054902b8a556913db34Affected
  • 38f7b870d4a6a5d3ec21557e849620cb7d032965 to before 2fd0880f0272ec022906a05587fd91416ebecc38Affected
  • 38f7b870d4a6a5d3ec21557e849620cb7d032965 to before a638a2625aa83160a394abe8e8b2e524a80c771bAffected
  • 38f7b870d4a6a5d3ec21557e849620cb7d032965 to before 1aa9e143bf51405665a793d4cc925e1c4f0c5922Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 2.6.23Affected
  • before 2.6.23Not affected
  • 6.6.160 through 6.6.*Not affected
  • 6.12.111 through 6.12.*Not affected
  • 6.18.53 through 6.18.*Not affected
  • 7.2.7 through 7.2.*Not affected
  • 7.3 and laterNot affected

References

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