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CVE-2026-98541

Linux: fou: reject omitted FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO on FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT

Linux LinuxOperating systems
CVSS
NoneNot scored
ExploitationNo known exploitationNot in CISA KEV, which does not prove it is unexploitedCISA KEV
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.21%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 10% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in46b1ffb7e169c7e401dd890b29e55dbc261f8f01Also 7f4ba56f5d310dd018972916167985010a5d66a1, 3bcc1624cc1cdcc05b566475d6e848093ab2a8f6 and 2 moreCVE List
Published18 Oct 2026Updated 19 Oct 2026CVE List

What fixes it

  • 46b1ffb7e169c7e401dd890b29e55dbc261f8f01LinuxCVE List
  • 7f4ba56f5d310dd018972916167985010a5d66a1LinuxCVE List
  • 3bcc1624cc1cdcc05b566475d6e848093ab2a8f6LinuxCVE List
  • 8b43f40798bb2758489fbbcae7e841ad4443c213LinuxCVE List
  • 520cf06b8ea0ba5bcc1b8b982ef07f02b5e56221LinuxCVE List

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

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

fou: reject omitted FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO on FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT

Commit 7a9bc9e3f423 ("fou: Don't allow 0 for FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO.") added NLA_POLICY_MIN(NLA_U8, 1) to fou_nl_policy[FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO], which rejects an explicitly supplied FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO == 0 attribute with -ERANGE.

However, FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO is an optional netlink attribute. When a user sends FOU_CMD_ADD with FOU_ATTR_TYPE set to FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT and omits FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO entirely, nla_policy validation succeeds and parse_nl_config() leaves cfg->protocol as 0 (from memset(cfg, 0, sizeof(*cfg))). fou_create() then creates a FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT socket with fou->protocol == 0.

In fou_udp_recv(), returning -fou->protocol to udp_queue_rcv_one_skb() triggers IP protocol resubmission when fou->protocol > 0, whereas returning 0 tells the UDP tunnel layer that the skb was consumed without freeing it. When fou->protocol == 0, every packet received on the socket returns 0 from fou_udp_recv() and leaks the sk_buff.

Reject FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT when !cfg->protocol in fou_create() so that creating a direct encapsulation port without FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO fails with -EINVAL while leaving FOU_CMD_DEL and FOU_CMD_GET (which share parse_nl_config()) unaffected.

Tested in QEMU against Linux 7.3.0-rc3 by sending a FOU_CMD_ADD Generic Netlink request with FOU_ATTR_PORT = 5555 and FOU_ATTR_TYPE = FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT while omitting FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO. On the unfixed kernel, FOU_CMD_ADD succeeds (err = 0), FOU_CMD_GET reports fou->type = 1 and fou->protocol = 0, and sending 4000 UDP packets to 127.0.0.1:5555 leaks all 4000 sk_buffs (SUnreclaim in /proc/meminfo grows from 41456 kB to 59008 kB, +17552 kB); with this patch applied, FOU_CMD_ADD is rejected with -EINVAL (-22).

Text from CVE List

Affected versions 18

  • Linuxaffected: 23461551c00628c3f3fe9cf837bf53cf8f212b63 before fd20220f86947d66d4dba2d76f13a28dbd86ef30CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 23461551c00628c3f3fe9cf837bf53cf8f212b63 before 46b1ffb7e169c7e401dd890b29e55dbc261f8f01CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 23461551c00628c3f3fe9cf837bf53cf8f212b63 before 7f4ba56f5d310dd018972916167985010a5d66a1CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 23461551c00628c3f3fe9cf837bf53cf8f212b63 before 3bcc1624cc1cdcc05b566475d6e848093ab2a8f6CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 23461551c00628c3f3fe9cf837bf53cf8f212b63 before 8b43f40798bb2758489fbbcae7e841ad4443c213CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 23461551c00628c3f3fe9cf837bf53cf8f212b63 before b1229b210ef5a39c58be665e6798203751411842CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 23461551c00628c3f3fe9cf837bf53cf8f212b63 before 520cf06b8ea0ba5bcc1b8b982ef07f02b5e56221CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 23461551c00628c3f3fe9cf837bf53cf8f212b63 before d22609f3d13fc5baacd92c222731b03c593401dbCVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 3.18CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: all versions before 3.18CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 5.10.271 through 5.10.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 5.15.222 through 5.15.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 6.1.189 through 6.1.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 6.6.158 through 6.6.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 6.12.112 through 6.12.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 6.18.55 through 6.18.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 7.2.9 through 7.2.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 7.3CVE List

References 8