{"cve":"CVE-2026-98541","nvd":{"published":"2026-10-18T16:17:05.967","modified":"2026-10-19T10:19:09.957","status":"Received","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nfou: reject omitted FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO on FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT\n\nCommit 7a9bc9e3f423 (\"fou: Don't allow 0 for FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO.\") added\nNLA_POLICY_MIN(NLA_U8, 1) to fou_nl_policy[FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO], which\nrejects an explicitly supplied FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO == 0 attribute with\n-ERANGE.\n\nHowever, FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO is an optional netlink attribute. When a user\nsends FOU_CMD_ADD with FOU_ATTR_TYPE set to FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT and omits\nFOU_ATTR_IPPROTO entirely, nla_policy validation succeeds and\nparse_nl_config() leaves cfg->protocol as 0 (from memset(cfg, 0,\nsizeof(*cfg))). fou_create() then creates a FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT socket with\nfou->protocol == 0.\n\nIn fou_udp_recv(), returning -fou->protocol to udp_queue_rcv_one_skb()\ntriggers IP protocol resubmission when fou->protocol > 0, whereas\nreturning 0 tells the UDP tunnel layer that the skb was consumed without\nfreeing it. When fou->protocol == 0, every packet received on the socket\nreturns 0 from fou_udp_recv() and leaks the sk_buff.\n\nReject FOU_ENCAP_DIRECT when !cfg->protocol in fou_create() so that\ncreating a direct encapsulation port without FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO fails with\n-EINVAL while leaving FOU_CMD_DEL and FOU_CMD_GET (which share\nparse_nl_config()) unaffected.\n\nTested in QEMU against Linux 7.3.0-rc3 by sending a FOU_CMD_ADD Generic\nNetlink request with FOU_ATTR_PORT = 5555 and FOU_ATTR_TYPE =\nFOU_ENCAP_DIRECT while omitting FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO. On the unfixed kernel,\nFOU_CMD_ADD succeeds (err = 0), FOU_CMD_GET reports fou->type = 1 and\nfou->protocol = 0, and sending 4000 UDP packets to 127.0.0.1:5555 leaks\nall 4000 sk_buffs (SUnreclaim in /proc/meminfo grows from 41456 kB to\n59008 kB, +17552 kB); with this patch applied, FOU_CMD_ADD is rejected\nwith -EINVAL (-22).","cvss_v4":null,"cvss_v3":null,"cwes":[],"references":["https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3bcc1624cc1cdcc05b566475d6e848093ab2a8f6","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46b1ffb7e169c7e401dd890b29e55dbc261f8f01","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/520cf06b8ea0ba5bcc1b8b982ef07f02b5e56221","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7f4ba56f5d310dd018972916167985010a5d66a1","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8b43f40798bb2758489fbbcae7e841ad4443c213"],"products":[],"source":"nvd","synced_at":"2026-10-19T23:00:53.604569364+00:00"},"epss":{"cve":"CVE-2026-98541","score":0.00216,"percentile":0.11969,"date":"2026-10-25"},"kev":null,"osv":[],"attribution":["This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.","EPSS scores: FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System, https://www.first.org/epss","Known exploited vulnerabilities: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","Package advisories: OSV (https://osv.dev), from the GitHub Advisory Database, PyPA, Go, RustSec and other ecosystem databases, under CC-BY 4.0 or CC0","CVE records: the CVE Program's CVE List (https://www.cve.org), under its terms of use (https://www.cve.org/Legal/TermsOfUse). CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation; this product is not affiliated with the CVE Program."]}