CVE-2026-72502

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tcp: ipv6: clamp default adverting MSS to avoid GSO_BY_FRAGS (0xFFFF)

When MTU is large, ip6_default_advmss() can return IPV6_MAXPLEN (65535). This is interpreted by TCP as mss_clamp, allowing the MSS to reach 65535.

However, 0xFFFF is also used as a magic value GSO_BY_FRAGS in the kernel. If a TCP packet with gso_size=0xFFFF is passed to skb_segment(), it will be mistakenly treated as GSO_BY_FRAGS, leading to a NULL pointer dereference because local TCP packets do not use frag_list.

Fix this by returning min(IPV6_MAXPLEN, GSO_BY_FRAGS - 1) (65534) from ip6_default_advmss() when MTU is large.

Also update the stale comment in ip6_default_advmss() which suggested that IPV6_MAXPLEN is returned to mean "any MSS".

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
LinuxLinux3953c46c3ac7eef31a9935427371c6f54a22f1ba < 560b33b434e922ef97f9ff23aa2e909ef7aacd5caffected
LinuxLinux3953c46c3ac7eef31a9935427371c6f54a22f1ba < 21f69ac1879bb970588d5e7c12a96e6542f7c1a7affected
LinuxLinux3953c46c3ac7eef31a9935427371c6f54a22f1ba < c0db3dc2ac323b6c4b76adede3b355a9daa6dea8affected
LinuxLinux3953c46c3ac7eef31a9935427371c6f54a22f1ba < 572fff10819dfc359298d1f774839e76a4d96f93affected
LinuxLinux3953c46c3ac7eef31a9935427371c6f54a22f1ba < 8e6214a530c03e341dc1b0a846c8f2b716b3551aaffected
LinuxLinux3953c46c3ac7eef31a9935427371c6f54a22f1ba < d774cdbda6634a78d0f2baf201ee5a8c57f3bc0eaffected
LinuxLinux3953c46c3ac7eef31a9935427371c6f54a22f1ba < a210791f33345aa87187f7d7a9f3b9b7f4a28e6daffected
LinuxLinux3953c46c3ac7eef31a9935427371c6f54a22f1ba < 2bf43d0e2e6a27d52a7d624e2d6b9116972e8a22affected
LinuxLinux4.8affected
LinuxLinux0 < 4.8unaffected
LinuxLinux5.10.261 <= 5.10.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.15.212 <= 5.15.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.1.178 <= 6.1.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.6.145 <= 6.6.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.12.97 <= 6.12.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.18.40 <= 6.18.*unaffected
LinuxLinux7.1.5 <= 7.1.*unaffected
LinuxLinux7.2 <= *unaffected

Weaknesses

References