Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-53238

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netlabel: validate unlabeled address and mask attribute lengths netlbl_unlabel_addrinfo_get() used the address attribute length to determine whether the attribute data could be read as an IPv4 or IPv6 address, but did not independently validate the corresponding mask attribute length. A crafted Generic Netlink request could therefore provide a valid IPv4/IPv6 address attribute with a shorter mask attribute, which would later be read as a full struct in_addr or struct in6_addr. NLA_BINARY policy lengths are maximum lengths by default, so use NLA_POLICY_EXACT_LEN() for the unlabeled IPv4/IPv6 address and mask attributes. This rejects short attributes during policy validation and also exposes the exact length requirements through policy introspection.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.001 (1.8th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 2nd percentile — 1.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-53238: held from 0.002 to 0.001.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.001 · change: -0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 8cc44579d1bd77ba3a32f2cb76fd9669c229c5fd, 2.6.25, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 7.1

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-53238?
CVE-2026-53238 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2026-06-25.
How severe is CVE-2026-53238?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.