CVE-2026-63836
Received Received - Intake

Integer Overflow in batman-adv tp_meter Leading to Division by Zero

Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-63836, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.

Publication date: 2026-07-19

Last updated on: 2026-07-19

Assigner: kernel.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: batman-adv: tp_meter: avoid divide-by-zero for dec_cwnd The cwnd is always MSS <= cwnd <= 0x20000000. But the calculation in batadv_tp_update_cwnd() assumes unsigned 32 bit arithmetics. ((mss * 8) ** 2) / (cwnd * 8) In case cwnd is actually 0x20000000, it will be shifted by 3 bit to the left end up at 0x100000000 or U32_MAX + 1. It will therefore wrap around and be 0 - resulting in: ((mss * 8) ** 2) / 0 This is of course invalid and cannot be calculated. The calculation should must be simplified to avoid this overflow: (mss ** 2) * 8 / cwnd It will keep the precision enhancement from the scaling (by 8) but avoid the overflow in the divisor. In theory, there could still be an overflow in the dividend. It is at the moment fixed to BATADV_TP_PLEN in batadv_tp_recv_ack() - so it is not an imminent problem. But allowing it to use the whole u32 bit range, would mean that it can still use up to 67 bits. To keep this calculation safe for 32 bit arithmetic, mss must never use more than floor((32 - 3) / 2) bits - or in other words: must never be larger than 16383.

CVSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published
2026-07-19
Last Modified
2026-07-19
Generated
2026-07-20
AI Q&A
2026-07-19
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
EUVD

Affected Vendors & Products

Currently, no data is known.

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability in the Linux kernel involves a divide-by-zero error in the batman-adv tp_meter module. It occurs due to incorrect unsigned 32-bit arithmetic in the calculation of congestion window (cwnd) updates, leading to a potential crash when cwnd reaches a specific value.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability is specific to the batman-adv kernel module in Linux. Detection requires checking if the module is loaded and examining kernel logs for divide-by-zero errors related to tp_meter. Use commands like 'lsmod | grep batman_adv' to check module status and 'dmesg | grep -i divide' to search for errors.

Impact Analysis

If exploited, this vulnerability could cause a system crash or denial of service by triggering a divide-by-zero error in the Linux kernel's batman-adv module, affecting network performance and stability.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability does not directly affect compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA. It is a divide-by-zero issue in the Linux kernel's batman-adv module, which could cause system instability or crashes but does not involve data exposure or privacy violations.

Mitigation Strategies

Update the Linux kernel to a patched version where this issue is resolved. If immediate update is not possible, disable the batman-adv module with 'rmmod batman_adv' and prevent it from loading at boot by blacklisting it in /etc/modprobe.d/

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