CVE-2026-64531

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: reject oversized nested action attrs Open vSwitch stores generated flow actions as nlattrs, whose nla_len field is u16. Commit a1e64addf3ff ("net: openvswitch: remove misbehaving actions length check") allowed the total sw_flow_actions stream to grow beyond 64 KiB, which is valid, but also removed the last guard preventing a generated nested action attribute from exceeding U16_MAX. An oversized generated container can thus be closed with a truncated nla_len. A later dump or teardown then walks a structurally different stream than the one that was validated. In particular, an oversized nested CLONE/CT action may cause subsequent bytes in the generated stream to be interpreted as independent actions. Keep the larger total-action-stream behavior, but make nested action close reject generated containers that do not fit in nla_len, and return the error through all callers. For recursive SAMPLE, CLONE, DEC_TTL, and CHECK_PKT_LEN builders, trim resource-owning action-list tails in reverse construction order before discarding failed wrappers, so resources copied into the rejected tails are released before the wrappers are removed. Most failed outer wrappers are discarded by truncating actions_len after child resources have been released. CHECK_PKT_LEN also trims its parent after branch resources are gone. SET/TUNNEL close failures unwind their known tun_dst ownership directly, and SET_TO_MASKED has no external ownership and truncates on close failure.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2026-07-27
Last modified 2026-07-27
Patch available
Yes

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 5.15.180, 6.1.132, 6.6.84, 6.12.20, 6.13.8, 6.14 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, 7.2-rc4 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 5.15.180 ≥ 6.1.132 ≥ 6.6.84 ≥ 6.12.20 ≥ 6.13.8 ≥ 6.14
Fixed in
✓ 5.15.212 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.178 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.145 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.97 6.12.x ✓ 6.18.40 6.18.x ✓ 7.1.5 7.1.x ✓ 7.2-rc4

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2026-64531?

    CVE-2026-64531 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.15.180 onward and has been patched in 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145 and others. CVE-2026-64531 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-64531?

    Yes. CVE-2026-64531 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.15.180 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2026-64531 actively exploited?

    No. CVE-2026-64531 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.