CVE-2026-23003
Published: 25 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-23003 is a high-severity Use of Uninitialized Resource (CWE-908) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 6.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Remote exploitation of the uninitialized memory flaw in IPv6 tunnel processing directly triggers kernel crash/DoS, matching T1499.004 (Application or System Exploitation).
NVD Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ip6_tunnel: use skb_vlan_inet_prepare() in __ip6_tnl_rcv() Blamed commit did not take care of VLAN encapsulations as spotted by syzbot [1]. Use skb_vlan_inet_prepare() instead of pskb_inet_may_pull(). [1] BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in __INET_ECN_decapsulate…
more
include/net/inet_ecn.h:253 [inline] BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in INET_ECN_decapsulate include/net/inet_ecn.h:275 [inline] BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in IP6_ECN_decapsulate+0x7a8/0x1fa0 include/net/inet_ecn.h:321 __INET_ECN_decapsulate include/net/inet_ecn.h:253 [inline] INET_ECN_decapsulate include/net/inet_ecn.h:275 [inline] IP6_ECN_decapsulate+0x7a8/0x1fa0 include/net/inet_ecn.h:321 ip6ip6_dscp_ecn_decapsulate+0x16f/0x1b0 net/ipv6/ip6_tunnel.c:729 __ip6_tnl_rcv+0xed9/0x1b50 net/ipv6/ip6_tunnel.c:860 ip6_tnl_rcv+0xc3/0x100 net/ipv6/ip6_tunnel.c:903 gre_rcv+0x1529/0x1b90 net/ipv6/ip6_gre.c:-1 ip6_protocol_deliver_rcu+0x1c89/0x2c60 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:438 ip6_input_finish+0x1f4/0x4a0 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:489 NF_HOOK include/linux/netfilter.h:318 [inline] ip6_input+0x9c/0x330 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:500 ip6_mc_input+0x7ca/0xc10 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:590 dst_input include/net/dst.h:474 [inline] ip6_rcv_finish+0x958/0x990 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:79 NF_HOOK include/linux/netfilter.h:318 [inline] ipv6_rcv+0xf1/0x3c0 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:311 __netif_receive_skb_one_core net/core/dev.c:6139 [inline] __netif_receive_skb+0x1df/0xac0 net/core/dev.c:6252 netif_receive_skb_internal net/core/dev.c:6338 [inline] netif_receive_skb+0x57/0x630 net/core/dev.c:6397 tun_rx_batched+0x1df/0x980 drivers/net/tun.c:1485 tun_get_user+0x5c0e/0x6c60 drivers/net/tun.c:1953 tun_chr_write_iter+0x3e9/0x5c0 drivers/net/tun.c:1999 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:593 [inline] vfs_write+0xbe2/0x15d0 fs/read_write.c:686 ksys_write fs/read_write.c:738 [inline] __do_sys_write fs/read_write.c:749 [inline] __se_sys_write fs/read_write.c:746 [inline] __x64_sys_write+0x1fb/0x4d0 fs/read_write.c:746 x64_sys_call+0x30ab/0x3e70 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_64.h:2 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xd3/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f Uninit was created at: slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4960 [inline] slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:5263 [inline] kmem_cache_alloc_node_noprof+0x9e7/0x17a0 mm/slub.c:5315 kmalloc_reserve+0x13c/0x4b0 net/core/skbuff.c:586 __alloc_skb+0x805/0x1040 net/core/skbuff.c:690 alloc_skb include/linux/skbuff.h:1383 [inline] alloc_skb_with_frags+0xc5/0xa60 net/core/skbuff.c:6712 sock_alloc_send_pskb+0xacc/0xc60 net/core/sock.c:2995 tun_alloc_skb drivers/net/tun.c:1461 [inline] tun_get_user+0x1142/0x6c60 drivers/net/tun.c:1794 tun_chr_write_iter+0x3e9/0x5c0 drivers/net/tun.c:1999 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:593 [inline] vfs_write+0xbe2/0x15d0 fs/read_write.c:686 ksys_write fs/read_write.c:738 [inline] __do_sys_write fs/read_write.c:749 [inline] __se_sys_write fs/read_write.c:746 [inline] __x64_sys_write+0x1fb/0x4d0 fs/read_write.c:746 x64_sys_call+0x30ab/0x3e70 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_64.h:2 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xd3/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 6465 Comm: syz.0.17 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(none) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 10/25/2025
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-23003 is a use of uninitialized resource vulnerability (CWE-908) in the Linux kernel's IPv6 tunneling code, specifically within the __ip6_tnl_rcv() function in net/ipv6/ip6_tunnel.c. The issue stems from a prior commit that failed to properly handle VLAN encapsulations during packet processing, leading to uninitialized memory being accessed during Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) decapsulation (IP6_ECN_decapsulate). This was detected by KMSAN via syzkaller fuzzing, manifesting as an uninit-value error in the inet_ecn.h handling path, triggered during GRE-over-IPv6 tunnel reception.
An unprivileged remote attacker can exploit this by sending crafted IPv6 packets to a vulnerable system configured for IPv6 tunneling (e.g., ip6gre), potentially via network input or TUN device writes that reach the ip6_tnl_rcv path. Successful exploitation causes a kernel crash due to the uninitialized memory access, resulting in a denial-of-service (DoS). The CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) reflects high severity from network accessibility with low complexity and no privileges required.
Mitigation requires updating to a patched Linux kernel version incorporating the upstream fixes. The referenced stable kernel commits replace pskb_inet_may_pull() with skb_vlan_inet_prepare() in __ip6_tnl_rcv() to correctly handle VLAN headers and prevent uninitialized access: 2f03dafea0a8, 64c71d60a21a, 81c734dae203, 9e1c8c2a33d0, and b9f915340f25. Security practitioners should prioritize kernels with these backports, especially on systems using IPv6 tunnels.
Details
- CWE(s)