CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98596

Low risk· EPSS 9%
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.20%

9th percentile - higher than 9% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, a race condition in IPv6 route handling causes list_empty() to return true when list_del_init() runs concurrently, leading to a leak of dst structures and associated devices. The issue affects uncached routes.

Risk Assessment

Leaking dst structures and network devices can lead to gradual memory resource exhaustion and system destabilization over time.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix that checks rt6->dst.rt_uncached_list instead of list_empty().

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: Fix dst leak for uncached routes. ip6_route_output_flags(), ip6_rt_put_flags(), and ip6_dst_check() detect an uncached route by list_empty(&rt->dst.rt_uncached), which replaced the static DST_NOCACHE flag check in commit a4c2fd7f7891 ("net: remove DST_NOCACHE flag"). When a device is unregistered, rt6_uncached_list_flush_dev() unlinks uncached routes tied to the device from rt6_uncached_list. Previously, they were moved to another list with list_move() (__list_del_entry() + list_add()), and since commit 98aa546af5e4 ("inet: remove (struct uncached_list)->quarantine"), the routes are just unlinked with list_del_init(). If list_del_init() runs concurrently, list_empty() evaluates to true; ip6_route_output_flags() calls dst_hold_safe() incorrectly and ip6_rt_put_flags() skips ip6_rt_put(), leaking dst, and thus dev tied via rt->from as well. The same race is partially fixed by commit 9a6f0c4d5796 ("dst: fix races in rt6_uncached_list_del() and rt_del_uncached_list()"). Let's check rt6->dst.rt_uncached_list instead. Note that IPv4 does not have the same issue.

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