CVE-2026-80841

Status: UPDATED  |  Advisory ID: CVE-2026-80841

Key Details

Affected Products, Subsystems & Sectors

What to Know

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

net/packet: defer vmalloc TX_RING free until skbs finish

AF_PACKET TX_RING skbs keep a raw pointer to their ring frame. The skb

page references preserve page-backed ring blocks after pg_vec is freed,

but they do not preserve a vmalloc mapping.

tpacket_destruct_skb() currently drops the pending reference before

writing the timestamp and TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE to the frame. Move the

decrement after those stores. The smp_wmb() in __packet_set_status()

orders the frame stores before the decrement.

Also recheck pending TX frames under pg_vec_lock before non-closing

ring replacement, so a racing send cannot add a pending skb between

the initial check and the ring swap.

Ring allocation can produce a mixture of page-backed and vmalloc-backed

blocks. Allocate deferred-work storage during TX ring setup when the

first vmalloc-backed block is encountered, and keep its pointer in the

pg_vec allocation header. If allocation fails, return -ENOMEM from ring

setup. On socket close, a non-NULL pointer identifies a vmalloc-backed

vector without a scan. If TX skbs remain, defer the whole vector to

system_long_wq.

After pg_vec is detached, a late destructor can skip the pending

decrement. Use socket write-memory accounting as the deferred lifetime

gate instead: an skb remains charged through its final sock_wfree(),

after all ring-frame accesses. The delayed work retains a socket

reference and reschedules itself until no TX skbs remain.

Move pending_refcnt release to packet_sock_destruct() so late skb

destructors and deferred cleanup can safely use it after

packet_release(). Page-backed teardown remains synchronous, and no lock

is added to the TX completion hot path. (NVD)

What to Do

Monitor Linux's web page for any future patch releases.

References