Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-72137

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: nat_keepalive: avoid double free on send error nat_keepalive_send() frees the keepalive skb whenever the IPv4 or IPv6 send helper reports an error. That cleanup is only correct before the skb is handed to the output path. Once ip_build_and_send_pkt() or ip6_xmit() takes ownership, the networking stack may already have consumed the skb before returning an error, so freeing it again is unsafe. Handle the pre-handoff failure cases inside nat_keepalive_send_ipv4() and nat_keepalive_send_ipv6(), where the caller still owns the skb, and keep nat_keepalive_send() responsible only for family dispatch and the unsupported-family cleanup path.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.007 (50.1th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 50th percentile — 50.1% 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-2026-72137: held from 0.006 to 0.007.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.006 · newest: 0.007 · change: +0.001

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 7.2, 6.18.40, 6.11

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-72137?
CVE-2026-72137 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-08-15.
How severe is CVE-2026-72137?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.