CVE-2026-74558
Received
Received - Intake
Linux Kernel XSK Zero-Copy Tx Descriptor Handling Flaw
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-74558, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-08-15
Last updated on: 2026-08-15
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
xsk: reclaim invalid Tx descriptors in ZC batch path
The zero-copy Tx batch parser stops when it encounters an invalid
descriptor. If this happens after one or more continuation descriptors,
the Tx consumer can be advanced past fragments that are neither submitted
to the driver nor returned to userspace through the completion ring.
A similar problem occurs when a packet exceeds xdp_zc_max_segs. The
descriptors consumed up to the limit are released without completion, and
the remaining continuation descriptors can subsequently be interpreted
as the beginning of another packet.
Parse Tx batches in packet units and distinguish descriptors belonging to
complete valid packets from descriptors consumed while draining an
invalid or oversized packet. Return the former to the driver and append
the latter to the CQ address area so userspace can reclaim their UMEM
frames.
Treat a standalone invalid descriptor as a one-descriptor reclaim-only
packet. Advancing the Tx-ring consumer releases the ring slot, but does
not by itself return ownership of the referenced UMEM frame to userspace.
Once draining starts, continue until the packet's end-of-packet
descriptor is consumed. Preserve the drain state on the socket when EOP
has not yet been supplied, so draining can continue during a later call.
Leave incomplete but otherwise valid packets on the Tx ring.
Shared-UMEM pools using multi-buffer Tx also need packet-framed parsing.
Walk their Tx sockets one packet at a time, preserving the existing
per-socket fairness scheme, instead of using the legacy one-descriptor
fallback. Keep that fallback for shared pools that do not use
multi-buffer Tx. Since the drain state is maintained per socket and both
the singular and shared paths can resume an interrupted drain, changing
the socket list from singular to shared requires no special bind-time
transition.
CQ entries are positional, and drivers may complete only part of the Tx
work returned by xsk_tx_peek_release_desc_batch(). Therefore, reclaim-only
entries cannot be published immediately when earlier driver-visible
descriptors are still outstanding.
Track the number of driver-visible CQ entries preceding the reclaim
entries. Let xsk_tx_completed() publish partial hardware Tx completions,
and publish the reclaim entries only after every earlier Tx descriptor
has completed. Complete a reclaim-only batch immediately when there is no
driver-visible work in front of it, and prevent another Tx batch from
being appended while reclaim entries remain pending.
Also cap batch processing by the size of the pool's temporary descriptor
array, as Tx rings belonging to sockets sharing a UMEM may have different
sizes.
This ensures that every invalid Tx descriptor consumed by the ZC batch
path is either submitted to the driver as part of a valid packet or
returned to userspace without violating CQ completion ordering.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
