Read the docs
TI-2026-18523 Aliases CVE-2026-23086GHSA-45gq-hr3j-jmrq

vsock/virtio: cap TX credit to local buffer size

Priority LOW 24CWE-400Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Denial of service
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-400.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vsock/virtio: cap TX credit to local buffer size The virtio transports derives its TX credit directly from peer_buf_alloc, which is set from the remote endpoint's SO_VM_SOCKETS_BUFFER_SIZE value. On the host side this means that the amount of data we are willing to queue for a connection is scaled by a guest-chosen buffer size, rather than the host's own vsock configuration. A malicious guest can advertise a large buffer and read slowly, causing the host to allocate a correspondingly large amount of sk_buff memory. The same thing would happen in the guest with a malicious host, since virtio transports share the same code base. Introduce a small helper, virtio_transport_tx_buf_size(), that returns min(peer_buf_alloc, buf_alloc), and use it wherever we consume peer_buf_alloc. This ensures the effective TX window is bounded by both the peer's advertised buffer and our own buf_alloc (already clamped to buffer_max_size via SO_VM_SOCKETS_BUFFER_MAX_SIZE), so a remote peer cannot force the other to queue more data than allowed by its own vsock settings. On an unpatched Ubuntu 22.04 host (~64 GiB RAM), running a PoC with 32 guest vsock connections advertising 2 GiB each and reading slowly drove Slab/SUnreclaim from ~0.5 GiB to ~57 GiB; the system only recovered after killing the QEMU process. That said, if QEMU memory is limited with cgroups, the maximum memory used will be limited. With this patch applied: Before: MemFree: ~61.6 GiB Slab: ~142 MiB SUnreclaim: ~117 MiB After 32 high-credit connections: MemFree: ~61.5 GiB Slab: ~178 MiB SUnreclaim: ~152 MiB Only ~35 MiB increase in Slab/SUnreclaim, no host OOM, and the guest remains responsive. Compatibility with non-virtio transports: - VMCI uses the AF_VSOCK buffer knobs to size its queue pairs per socket based on the local vsk->buffer_* values; the remote side cannot enlarge those queues beyond what the local endpoint configured. - Hyper-V's vsock transport uses fixed-size VMBus ring buffers and an MTU bound; there is no peer-controlled credit field comparable to peer_buf_alloc, and the remote endpoint cannot drive in-flight kernel memory above those ring sizes. - The loopback path reuses virtio_transport_common.c, so it naturally follows the same semantics as the virtio transport. This change is limited to virtio_transport_common.c and thus affects virtio-vsock, vhost-vsock, and loopback, bringing them in line with the "remote window intersected with local policy" behaviour that VMCI and Hyper-V already effectively have. [Stefano: small adjustments after changing the previous patch] [Stefano: tweak the commit message]

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00171 6th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 6.1.162, 6.6.122, 6.12.68 +2Red Hat: 4 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux4.8 and later6.1.162, 6.6.122, 6.12.68, 6.18.8, 6.19Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 4.8 and later Fixed in 6.1.162, 6.6.122, 6.12.68, 6.18.8, 6.19 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 7

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*4.8 to before 6.1.162; 6.2 to before 6.6.122; 6.7 to before 6.12.68; 6.13 to before 6.18.8VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*6.19 rc1VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*6.19 rc2VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*6.19 rc3VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*6.19 rc4VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*6.19 rc5VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*6.19 rc6VulnerableLinux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 4.8 to before 6.1.162; 6.2 to before 6.6.122; 6.7 to before 6.12.68; 6.13 to before 6.18.8 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.19 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.19 rc2 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.19 rc3 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.19 rc4 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.19 rc5 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.19 rc6 Vulnerable ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.162, 6.6.122, 6.12.68, 6.18.8, 6.19

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9AffectedNo fix yet
Not affected: 1 product
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-23086
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-45gq-hr3j-jmrq
  3. 2026-10-19 Weakness changed · CISA ADP

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
See all 15278 →

Sources