CVE-2026-98234

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: hhf: cap hh_flows_limit at change time hhf_change() stores TCA_HHF_HH_FLOWS_LIMIT with no upper bound. A huge hh_flows_limit lets each new heavy-hitter flow pass the hh_flows_current_cnt check in alloc_new_hh() and forces a fixed-size kzalloc(GFP_ATOMIC) per flow under spoofed traffic, for unbounded memory growth. Bound the attribute with NLA_POLICY_MAX() at 2*HH_FLOWS_CNT (the hhf_init() default) and report the rejected value via extack. The deprecated nested parse is kept: legacy tc does not set NLA_F_NESTED on TCA_OPTIONS. Configs relying on hh_limit above the default were relying on unbounded, unsafe behaviour and are not supported going forward. hhf_init() also ran hhf_change() before setting the default hh_flows_limit, so a user-supplied hh_limit at add time was clobbered back to 2048. Set the default before hhf_change() so the configured value sticks. This is a follow-up to commit eb56a495f59b ("net/sched: hhf: clamp quantum in change and init paths"), which bounded the quantum of the same qdisc; the hh_flows_limit bound is the remaining unbounded knob of that series' scope. Conditions to recreate the bug: CAP_NET_ADMIN in a user namespace; tc qdisc change dev X root hhf hh_limit 4294967295 succeeds and the value is echoed by tc qdisc show, unbounding heavy-hitter flow allocations; also tc qdisc add dev X root hhf hh_limit 500 stores 2048 instead of 500.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2026-10-06
Last modified 2026-10-06
Patch available
Yes

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 3.14 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.10.271, 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158, 6.12.112, 6.18.54, 7.2.8, 7.3-rc4 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 3.14
Fixed in
✓ 5.10.271 5.10.x ✓ 5.15.222 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.189 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.158 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.112 6.12.x ✓ 6.18.54 6.18.x ✓ 7.2.8 7.2.x ✓ 7.3-rc4

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2026-98234?

    CVE-2026-98234 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 3.14 onward and has been patched in 5.10.271, 5.15.222, 6.1.189 and others. CVE-2026-98234 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-98234?

    Yes. CVE-2026-98234 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.271, 5.15.222, 6.1.189 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 3.14 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2026-98234 actively exploited?

    No. CVE-2026-98234 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.