CVE-2026-68136

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

net: gro: fix double aggregation of flush-marked skbs

Commit 0ab03f353d36 (net-gro: Fix GRO flush when receiving a GSO packet.) added a flush check to skb_gro_receive(), but skb_gro_receive_list() lacks the same validation.

As a result, packets marked with NAPI_GRO_CB(skb)->flush may still be re-aggregated.

This allows already-GROd packets with existing frag_list to be re-aggregated into a new GRO session, corrupting the frag_list chain structure. When skb_segment() attempts to unpack these malformed packets, it encounters invalid state and triggers a kernel panic.

Scenario (Tethering/Device forwarding):

1. Driver: Generated aggregated packet P1 via LRO with frag_list
2. Dev A: Receives aggregated fraglist packet and flush flag set
3. Dev A: Re-enters GRO, skb_gro_receive_list() is called
4. Missing flush check allows re-aggregation despite flush flag
5. Frag_list chain becomes corrupted (loops or dangling refs)
6. Dev B: TX path calls skb_segment(), crashes on corrupted frag_list

Root cause in skb_segment(): The check at line ~4891: if (hsize <= 0 && i >= nfrags && skb_headlen(list_skb) && (skb_headlen(list_skb) == len || sg)) {

When frag_list is corrupted by double aggregation, when list_skb is a NULL pointer from skb->next, skb_headlen(list_skb) dereference NULL/corrupted pointers occurs.

Call Trace: skb_headlen(NULL skb) skb_segment tcp_gso_segment tcp4_gso_segment inet_gso_segment skb_mac_gso_segment __skb_gso_segment skb_gso_segment validate_xmit_skb validate_xmit_skb_list sch_direct_xmit qdisc_restart __qdisc_run qdisc_run net_tx_action

Fix: Add NAPI_GRO_CB(skb)->flush validation to the early-return check in skb_gro_receive_list(), matching the defensive programming pattern of skb_gro_receive().

Affected Software

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/107e1a469f53a2a70874f3f12bf6fcd23925da1d
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a4dfd46cc8f08a29c6183794790547d0945f3d45
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e751256486d0ded20f5a9f9863467f1dce65142f
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fc0c0f7a207f0cd2d2aa725696c907f7d03af9e0