CVE-2026-31429

EUVD-2026-23816
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: skb: fix cross-cache free of KFENCE-allocated skb head

SKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE is intentionally set to a non-power-of-2
value (e.g. 704 on x86_64) to avoid collisions with generic kmalloc
bucket sizes. This ensures that skb_kfree_head() can reliably use
skb_end_offset to distinguish skb heads allocated from
skb_small_head_cache vs. generic kmalloc caches.

However, when KFENCE is enabled, kfence_ksize() returns the exact
requested allocation size instead of the slab bucket size. If a caller
(e.g. bpf_test_init) allocates skb head data via kzalloc() and the
requested size happens to equal SKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE, then
slab_build_skb() -> ksize() returns that exact value. After subtracting
skb_shared_info overhead, skb_end_offset ends up matching
SKB_SMALL_HEAD_HEADROOM, causing skb_kfree_head() to incorrectly free
the object to skb_small_head_cache instead of back to the original
kmalloc cache, resulting in a slab cross-cache free:

  kmem_cache_free(skbuff_small_head): Wrong slab cache. Expected
  skbuff_small_head but got kmalloc-1k

Fix this by always calling kfree(head) in skb_kfree_head(). This keeps
the free path generic and avoids allocator-specific misclassification
for KFENCE objects.
ProviderTypeBase ScoreAtk. VectorAtk. ComplexityPriv. RequiredVector
NISTPrimary
5.5 MEDIUM
LOCAL
LOW
LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Base Score
CVSS 3.x
EPSS Score
Percentile: 3%
Affected Products (NVD)
VendorProductVersion
linuxlinux_kernel
6.3 ≤
𝑥
< 6.6.136
linuxlinux_kernel
6.7 ≤
𝑥
< 6.12.82
linuxlinux_kernel
6.13 ≤
𝑥
< 6.18.23
linuxlinux_kernel
6.19 ≤
𝑥
< 6.19.13
linuxlinux_kernel
7.0:rc1
linuxlinux_kernel
7.0:rc2
linuxlinux_kernel
7.0:rc3
linuxlinux_kernel
7.0:rc4
linuxlinux_kernel
7.0:rc5
linuxlinux_kernel
7.0:rc6
linuxlinux_kernel
7.0:rc7
𝑥
= Vulnerable software versions
Debian logo
Debian Releases
Debian Product
Codename
linux
bookworm
6.1.170-3
fixed
bookworm (security)
6.1.174-1
fixed
bullseye
5.10.223-1
fixed
bullseye (security)
5.10.257-1
fixed
forky
7.0.10-1
fixed
sid
7.0.10-1
fixed
trixie
6.12.86-1
fixed
trixie (security)
6.12.90-2
fixed