CVE-2026-80840
Received Received - Intake

Memory Corruption in Linux Kernel IPv6 Seg6

Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-80840, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.

Publication date: 2026-09-04

Last updated on: 2026-09-04

Assigner: kernel.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: seg6: clear IPv4 control block on IPIP decapsulation End.DX4 and End.DT4 decapsulate an IPv4 packet through decap_and_validate() and send it directly to IPv4 routing. The inner packet therefore bypasses ip_rcv_core(), which normally clears IPCB before IPv4 interprets skb->cb. The skb instead retains IP6CB data from the outer packet. IP6CB and IPCB use the same skb->cb storage, so IP6CB(skb)->lastopt overlaps IPCB(skb)->opt.optlen and srr, while IP6CB(skb)->nhoff overlaps rr and ts. The sender can make the stale optlen byte nonzero with a valid outer extension-header chain. The reproducers put an eight-byte Destination Options header immediately after the 40-byte IPv6 header and before the Segment Routing Header. ipv6_destopt_rcv() records the sender-controlled Destination Options offset in both lastopt and nhoff, setting them to 40. On the reproduced little-endian x86-64 kernel, IPv4 therefore sees optlen = 40 and rr = 40. Both tcp_v4_save_options() and __ip_options_echo() skip option copying when optlen is zero. Here optlen is 40, so the TCP SYN path allocates room for 40 bytes of option data and calls __ip_options_echo(). The stale rr value makes that function read inner packet byte 41 as the Record Route option length. The reproducers set that sender-controlled byte to 255, so __ip_options_echo() copies 255 bytes into the 40-byte option-data area. Separate End.DX4 and End.DT4 reproducers on the unpatched v7.2-rc5 kernel both produced: BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in __ip_options_echo() Write of size 255 The relevant End.DX4 call path is: __ip_options_echo tcp_v4_route_req tcp_conn_request tcp_v4_conn_request tcp_rcv_state_process tcp_v4_do_rcv tcp_v4_rcv ip_protocol_deliver_rcu ip_local_deliver_finish ip_local_deliver input_action_end_dx4_finish input_action_end_dx4 The relevant End.DT4 call path is: __ip_options_echo tcp_v4_route_req tcp_conn_request tcp_v4_conn_request tcp_rcv_state_process tcp_v4_do_rcv tcp_v4_rcv ip_protocol_deliver_rcu ip_local_deliver_finish ip_local_deliver input_action_end_dt4 tcp_v4_save_options() is inlined into the tcp_v4_route_req() path, so it does not appear as a separate frame. When decap_and_validate() handles IPPROTO_IPIP, save the ingress interface from IP6CB, clear IPCB, and restore the saved value. Doing this in the common decapsulation path covers End.DX4, End.DT4, and End.DT46's IPv4 arm. Use IP6CB(skb)->iif rather than skb->skb_iif. These actions run after l3mdev processing, which can replace skb_iif with the L3 master; IP6CB iif still records the receiving interface set at IPv6 ingress.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-09-04
Last Modified
2026-09-04
Generated
2026-09-04
AI Q&A
2026-09-04
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
EUVD

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel 7.2-rc5

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

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Executive Summary

This is a Linux kernel vulnerability where IPv6 Segment Routing (SRv6) decapsulation of IPv4 packets fails to clear stale IPv6 control block data. This causes the inner IPv4 packet to bypass normal IPv4 processing, leading to memory corruption when handling TCP options. The issue arises because IPv6 and IPv4 share the same skb control buffer, and stale IPv6 metadata corrupts IPv4 option parsing, resulting in a slab-out-of-bounds write.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves IPv6 segment routing decapsulation leading to memory corruption. Detection requires checking kernel logs for KASAN slab-out-of-bounds errors in __ip_options_echo() or related IPv4 routing functions. Monitor for crashes in tcp_v4_route_req, tcp_conn_request, or tcp_v4_conn_request paths. Use dmesg or journalctl to search for 'KASAN' or 'slab-out-of-bounds' messages.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can cause kernel memory corruption, leading to system crashes or potential privilege escalation. Attackers could exploit it by sending specially crafted IPv6 packets with IPv4 payloads to trigger a buffer overflow in the TCP stack, potentially allowing arbitrary code execution or denial of service on affected systems.

Mitigation Strategies

Apply the Linux kernel patch that clears IPCB during IPv6 decapsulation. Update to a fixed kernel version where decap_and_validate() clears IPCB and restores the ingress interface. Disable IPv6 segment routing (SRv6) if not required by setting sysctl net.ipv6.conf.all.seg6_enabled=0 and net.ipv6.conf.default.seg6_enabled=0.

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