Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2026-72408
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: geneve: gate GRO hint in geneve_gro_complete() on gs->gro_hint geneve_gro_receive() reads the GRO hint through geneve_sk_gro_hint_off(), which honours it only when the socket enabled IFLA_GENEVE_GRO_HINT (gs->gro_hint). geneve_gro_complete() instead calls the low-level geneve_opt_gro_hint_off() and acts on the hint unconditionally. On a tunnel without the hint, receive aggregates the frames as plain ETH_P_TEB while complete still honours an attacker-supplied hint option: it inflates gh_len by gro_hint->nested_hdr_len (u8) and redirects the dispatch type, so the inner gro_complete handler runs at nhoff + gh_len, an offset receive never pulled nor validated, reading out of bounds of the skb head: BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in ipv6_gro_complete (net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c:196) Read of size 1 at addr ffff88800fe91980 by task exploit/153 ipv6_gro_complete (net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c:196) geneve_gro_complete (drivers/net/geneve.c:965) udp_gro_complete (net/ipv4/udp_offload.c:940) inet_gro_complete (net/ipv4/af_inet.c:1621) __gro_flush (net/core/gro.c:306) Gate the complete path on gs->gro_hint too via geneve_sk_gro_hint_off(), so both paths agree. Tunnels that enable the hint are unaffected.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 10.0 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.006 (44.0th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 44th percentile — 44.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.006 · change: +0.002
Affected products
- Linux — versions 7.2-rc1, 7.0, 7.2
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-72408?
- CVE-2026-72408 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 10.0/10. Published 2026-08-15.
- How severe is CVE-2026-72408?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 10.0 out of 10.