net/sched: act_pedit: fix TOCTOU heap OOB write in tc offload
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 5 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: act_pedit: fix TOCTOU heap OOB write in tc offload There is a TOCTOU race condition in flower lockless approach between sizing a flow_rule buffer and filling it. [email protected] reports: The cls_flower classifier operates with TCF_PROTO_OPS_DOIT_UNLOCKED (fl_change runs without RTNL), while RTM_NEWACTION holds RTNL, so the independent locking domains make the race reachable in practice. KASAN confirms: BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in tcf_pedit_offload_act_setup+0x81b/0x930 Write of size 4 at addr ffff888001f27520 by task poc-toctou/312 The buggy address is located 0 bytes to the right of allocated 288-byte region [ffff888001f27400, ffff888001f27520) (cache kmalloc-512) Note: The result is a heap OOB write attacker-controlled content into the adjacent slab object (requires CAP_NET_ADMIN). The fix introduces reading tcfp_nkeys under act->tcfa_lock in all places using a new tcf_pedit_nkeys_locked() which replaces the old tcf_pedit_nkeys(). Additionally we close the remaining TOCTOU window between the sizing read and the fill reads by more careful accounting. Rather than silently truncating the key count, which leads to incorrect action semantics offloaded to hardware and secondary OOB writes if the remaining capacity is zero or consumed by prior actions, we enforce remaining capacity checks and return -ENOSPC if the required space exceeds the remaining capacity.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.191, 6.6.145, 6.12.97, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, 7.2
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet |
Not affected: 3 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-72338
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-hgh2-wfvr-f9mp
- 2026-10-16 CISA SSVC decision points changed
- 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/Linux@1afdf2268b71251ea70d80bd8232a2f022e62a73, Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-10-30 1 new reference · CNA
References
Other 6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1afdf2268b71251ea70d80bd8232a2f022e62a73
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0d8532a5e972a5351cf4ee4a435e0d65cbba8f23
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/27488e1a7f19757e6146edca9458ed4ffc545557
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6f9b23eb92a894ae1118893996943990ee0b860e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8e49cd891bda447c68122d672510a604a8bb6b24
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8b519cbcabe836a441369fbec1a8a6518a709251
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Sources
- CVE-2026-72338 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-72338 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-hgh2-wfvr-f9mp · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-72338 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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