Look up another CVE · open CVE-2026-74747 in the interactive tracker
CVE-2026-74747
ipvs: revalidate ihl to prevent out-of-bounds access
Published 2026-08-26 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem include/net. Debian urgency: not yet assigned.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-74747 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | vulnerable | 6.1.190-1 | No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series bookworm tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for bookworm have historically landed a median of 23 days after publication. |
| Debian 13trixie | vulnerable | 6.12.113-1 | No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series trixie tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for trixie have historically landed a median of 11 days after publication. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.1.10-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.10-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.1.10-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.10-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
While the outer IP header is already pulled into the skb head, we must be careful and revalidate the embedded headers after reading them from the skb frags to prevent out-of-bounds access. One such place reported by Sashiko is ip_vs_nat_icmp() where local process can change the ihl field and after skb_ensure_writable() we can see larger value which is a problem for the ip_send_check(cih) calls. Add check to drop the packet if the ihl field is changed.
Where it lives
The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.
include/net/ip_vs.h
net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_core.c
net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c
- What this is
- IPVSMAINTAINERS section matched on include/net/ip_vs.h · netdev@vger.kernel.org · Maintained
- Kernel module
- ip_vs
Check it on the machine
grep -wE 'CONFIG_IP_VS|CONFIG_NETFILTER' /boot/config-$(uname -r)Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.
lsmod | grep -w ip_vsPrints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.
Show whether Debian builds this, per release
Debian builds this as a loadable module. Every release below compiles it as a module on every flavour, so whether the code is in the running kernel depends on whether that module is loaded.
- bookworm, trixie, forky, sidm
- m
- a loadable module on every flavour - check lsmod, can be blacklisted
- Build switches
- CONFIG_IP_VS, CONFIG_NETFILTER
- Reads as
- all on means the file is compiled; any one off means it is not.
From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages
Signals
- Published
- 2026-08-26 (2 months ago)source
- CVSS
- 7.8 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it - Attack vector
- local (AV:L)source
- EPSS
- 0.17%, higher than 6.3% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- not yet assignedsource
- Subsystem
- include/net
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 2.6.12 | 6.18.57 | eb81c8e758f4 |
| 2.6.12 | 7.1.10 | 5365f012451f |
| 2.6.12 | 7.2 | d93660df4dd1 |
Why the CNA scored it this way
Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source
- AV:LAttack vector, local
- Exploitation requires a local process to TOCTOU-modify the embedded IPv4 ihl in skb frags between ip_vs_fill_iph_skb_icmp() and skb_ensure_writable(); remote ICMP to IPVS NAT hooks reaches ip_vs_nat_icmp() but cannot change skb backing memory without local access to the packet buffer.
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- A local attacker controls both sides of the race by concurrently injecting ICMP errors matching an IPVS NAT connection and mutating the embedded header ihl in userspace-backed skb frags during softirq processing; no uncontrollable victim state or heap layout is required.
- PR:LPrivileges required, low
- Only a local account able to race skb frag modification (e.g., via raw/packet sockets with CAP_NET_RAW obtainable in user namespaces) against IPVS ICMP NAT handling on a host where IPVS is already configured is needed; init-namespace root is not required.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- No victim user interaction is required; exploitation is driven entirely by attacker-controlled local packet injection and concurrent frag modification while IPVS processes ICMP errors on NAT-mode connections through LOCAL_IN, LOCAL_OUT, or FORWARD hooks.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- The out-of-bounds access corrupts kernel skb memory on the IPVS load-balancer host within the same kernel security authority; it does not cross VM, container, or IOMMU boundaries into a separate security scope.
- C:HConfidentiality impact, high
- After skb_ensure_writable(), ip_send_check(cih) re-reads an attacker-inflated cih->ihl and ip_fast_csum() reads far beyond the validated skb region, enabling out-of-bounds kernel memory disclosure on internet-facing IPVS NAT nodes and kube-proxy IPVS clusters.
- I:HIntegrity impact, high
- The inflated ihl causes out-of-bounds access during ICMP NAT mangling in ip_vs_nat_icmp(), corrupting skb data beyond skb_ensure_writable()'s bound; such kernel memory corruption is exploitable for control-flow hijacking and privilege escalation on load balancers.
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- Out-of-bounds access in ip_send_check(cih) during ICMP NAT handling can trigger kernel oops or panic; a local attacker can repeatedly race the TOCTOU on IPVS NAT nodes, causing sustained denial of service on critical infrastructure.