CVE-2026-45840
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: openvswitch: cap upcall PID array size and pre-size vport replies The vport netlink reply helpers allocate a fixed-size skb with nlmsg_new(NLMSG_DEFAULT_SIZE, ...) but serialize the full upcall PID array via ovs_vport_get_upcall_portids(). Since ovs_vport_set_upcall_portids() accepts any non-zero multiple of sizeof(u32) with no upper bound, a CAP_NET_ADMIN user can install a PID array large enough to overflow the reply buffer, causing nla_put() to fail with -EMSGSIZE and hitting BUG_ON(err < 0). On systems with unprivileged user namespaces enabled (e.g., Ubuntu default), this is reachable via unshare -Urn since OVS vport mutation operations use GENL_UNS_ADMIN_PERM. kernel BUG at net/openvswitch/datapath.c:2414! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 65 Comm: poc Not tainted 7.0.0-rc7-00195-geb216e422044 #1 RIP: 0010:ovs_vport_cmd_set+0x34c/0x400 Call Trace: <TASK> genl_family_rcv_msg_doit (net/netlink/genetlink.c:1116) genl_rcv_msg (net/netlink/genetlink.c:1194) netlink_rcv_skb (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2550) genl_rcv (net/netlink/genetlink.c:1219) netlink_unicast (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1344) netlink_sendmsg (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1894) __sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2206) __x64_sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2209) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130) </TASK> Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception Reject attempts to set more PIDs than nr_cpu_ids in ovs_vport_set_upcall_portids(), and pre-compute the worst-case reply size in ovs_vport_cmd_msg_size() based on that bound, similar to the existing ovs_dp_cmd_msg_size(). nr_cpu_ids matches the cap already used by the per-CPU dispatch configuration on the datapath side (ovs_dp_cmd_fill_info() serialises at most nr_cpu_ids PIDs), so the two sides stay consistent.
Affected versions
Linux kernel versions
3.17
and later are affected. Fixed in
5.10.258,
5.15.209,
6.1.175,
6.6.141,
6.12.91,
6.18.33,
7.0.10,
7.1-rc1
and their respective stable series.
References
The following references provide additional information about CVE-2026-45840 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1d6c02b86329883aa467a3a61f8d34369db73a2f
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2091c6aa0df6aba47deb5c8ab232b1cb60af3519
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8d59b80e69dddb665eb2de36e62859ab2073470e
Frequently asked questions
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What is CVE-2026-45840?
CVE-2026-45840 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 3.17 onward and has been patched in 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175 and others. CVE-2026-45840 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
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Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-45840?
Yes — CVE-2026-45840 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 3.17 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
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Is CVE-2026-45840 actively exploited?
No — CVE-2026-45840 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.