CVE-2026-99078
CRITICAL 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Prevent stale XSK buffer release on MPWQE refill retry With AF_XDP on a striding RQ, mlx5e defers releasing XSK buffers until an MPWQE is refilled. If XSK allocation then returns -ENOMEM, actual_wq_head is not advanced and a later NAPI poll retries the same WQE. mlx5e_free_rx_mpwqe() leaves each released slot marked as releasable. On retry it can therefore call xsk_buff_free() again through stale pointers after the frames have returned to the XSK pool and been reallocated. Set all skip_release_bitmap bits in the common error path of mlx5e_xsk_alloc_rx_mpwqe(). This matches mlx5e_alloc_rx_mpwqe(). A successful allocation already clears the bitmap after replacing every buffer, so retries become idempotent without changing the success path. Fault injection forced three consecutive failures for one selected MPWQE. Both an early allocation failure and a partial 8-of-16-buffer unwind released the original 16 XSK buffers only once. Each error left a full bitmap, the following NAPI retry skipped the release, and a later successful allocation cleared it. A 20-second AF_XDP zero-copy pressure run exercised 1,575,262 buffer allocation failures without invalid descriptors, WQE errors, or kernel warnings.
Severe if exploited (CVSS 9.8), but no known exploitation and low modeled probability. Patch on a normal cadence.
Exploitation likelihood
0.5%chance of exploitation in 30 days · 39th percentile
Impact if exploited
9.8CVSS 3.1 · CRITICAL
- ConfidentialityHigh
- IntegrityHigh
- AvailabilityHigh
What an attacker needs
- ✓Access: Reachable over the network — no local access needed
- ✓Privileges: No account or privileges required
- ✓User interaction: No user interaction needed
- ✓Complexity: No special conditions — reliably repeatable
✓ lowers the bar for an attacker · ⚠ raises it
Proof of concept
No public PoC is currently catalogued.
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Data snapshot:
Weakness (CWE)
Not classified.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References and research data (JSON)
All CVSS metrics
- CRITICAL 9.8 v3.1 · CNA Primary
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CRITICAL 9.8 v3.1 · NVD Secondary
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
Advisories
- https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/EUVD-2026-108744 EUVD · EUVD-2026-108744
Technical & other
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f3a52e2ec2788a7f6b64137985c087188a54ad4fCVE record · Linux · Updated 2026-10-24T14:10:20.145Z
NVD · CVE-2026-99078 · Updated 2026-10-24T14:16:54.790 - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d215d09606b0fcd18ad1eb532995782a21cea49dCVE record · Linux · Updated 2026-10-24T14:10:20.145Z
NVD · CVE-2026-99078 · Updated 2026-10-24T14:16:54.790 - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/867119b4b588037724b85839d534465f0334d9bdCVE record · Linux · Updated 2026-10-24T14:10:20.145Z
NVD · CVE-2026-99078 · Updated 2026-10-24T14:16:54.790 - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3d73a1164a8c6b4461907a65cb6c022ea4fd39afCVE record · Linux · Updated 2026-10-24T14:10:20.145Z
NVD · CVE-2026-99078 · Updated 2026-10-24T14:16:54.790 - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/63811edf512584c946e5e96b100e9e280703bbb5CVE record · Linux · Updated 2026-10-24T14:10:20.145Z
NVD · CVE-2026-99078 · Updated 2026-10-24T14:16:54.790