CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-80988

Low risk· EPSS 6%
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.17%

6th percentile - higher than 6% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the NTB ntb_transport module's ntb_transport_tx_enqueue() was meant to drop packets submitted while the QP link is down, but it only returned 0 without consuming the packet. Zero means success, so ntb_netdev reports NETDEV_TX_OK and forgets the skb — nothing queued or freed it, leaking one skb per transmit racing a link-down. The fix returns -ENOLINK, restoring the contract that a non-zero return leaves the buffer owned by the caller.

Risk Assessment

Leaking skb buffers on every transmit during link-down leads to gradual kernel memory exhaustion and may eventually cause system crashes or denial of NTB networking functionality.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix. Monitor memory usage on systems using NTB ntb_transport.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: NTB: ntb_transport: Fail TX enqueue when the QP link is down Commit f195a1a6fe41 ("ntb: Drop packets when qp link is down") meant to make ntb_transport_tx_enqueue() drop packets submitted while the QP link is down, but it only returns 0 without consuming the packet. Zero means success by this function's contract, so ntb_netdev reports NETDEV_TX_OK and forgets the skb: nothing queued it, nothing frees it, and it leaks, one skb for every transmit racing a link-down. Return -ENOLINK instead, restoring the contract that a non-zero return leaves the buffer owned by the caller. With the preceding patch, ntb_netdev frees the skb on non-retryable enqueue failures and returns NETDEV_TX_OK, so a packet racing with link-down is dropped without leaking or entering a busy retry loop.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS