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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2026-23378

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.1.167 / 6.6.130 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: act_ife: Fix metalist update behavior Whenever an ife action replace changes the metalist, instead of replacing the old data on the metalist, the current ife code is appending the new metadata. Aside from being innapropriate behavior, this may lead to an unbounded addition of metadata to the metalist which might cause an out of bounds error when running the encode op: [ 138.423369][ C1] ================================================================== [ 138.424317][ C1] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:168) [ 138.424906][ C1] Write of size 4 at addr ffff8880077f4ffe by task ife_out_out_bou/255 [ 138.425778][ C1] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 255 Comm: ife_out_out_bou Not tainted 7.0.0-rc1-00169-gfbdfa8da05b6 #624 PREEMPT(full) [ 138.425795][ C1] Hardware name: Bochs Bochs, BIOS Bochs 01/01/2011 [ 138.425800][ C1] Call Trace: [ 138.425804][ C1] <IRQ> [ 138.425808][ C1] dump_stack_lvl (lib/dump_stack.c:122) [ 138.425828][ C1] print_report (mm/kasan/report.c:379 mm/kasan/report.c:482) [ 138.425839][ C1] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 138.425844][ C1] ? __virt_addr_valid (./arch/x86/include/asm/preempt.h:95 (discriminator 1) ./include/linux/rcupdate.h:975 (discriminator 1) ./include/linux/mmzone.h:2207 (discriminator 1) arch/x86/mm/physaddr.c:54 (discriminator 1)) [ 138.425853][ C1] ? ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:168) [ 138.425859][ C1] kasan_report (mm/kasan/report.c:221 mm/kasan/report.c:597) [ 138.425868][ C1] ? ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:168) [ 138.425878][ C1] kasan_check_range (mm/kasan/generic.c:186 (discriminator 1) mm/kasan/generic.c:200 (discriminator 1)) [ 138.425884][ C1] __asan_memset (mm/kasan/shadow.c:84 (discriminator 2)) [ 138.425889][ C1] ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:168) [ 138.425893][ C1] ? ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:171) [ 138.425898][ C1] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 138.425903][ C1] ife_encode_meta_u16 (net/sched/act_ife.c:57) [ 138.425910][ C1] ? __pfx_do_raw_spin_lock (kernel/locking/spinlock_debug.c:114) [ 138.425916][ C1] ? __asan_memcpy (mm/kasan/shadow.c:105 (discriminator 3)) [ 138.425921][ C1] ? __pfx_ife_encode_meta_u16 (net/sched/act_ife.c:45) [ 138.425927][ C1] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221) [ 138.425931][ C1] tcf_ife_act (net/sched/act_ife.c:847 net/sched/act_ife.c:879) To solve this issue, fix the replace behavior by adding the metalist to the ife rcu data structure.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-787

The program writes past the bounds of a buffer, overwriting adjacent memory an attacker can turn to their advantage. Crafted input can overwrite control data and redirect execution. Remediation is validating every index and length before a write, plus modern memory-safety mitigations.

General guidance for the out-of-bounds write class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 4.15.1, < 6.1.167>= 6.2, < 6.6.130>= 6.7, < 6.12.77>= 6.13, < 6.18.17>= 6.19, < 6.19.7= 4.15= 7.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.1.167 / 6.6.130 / 6.12.77 or later
Fixed in 6.1.1676.6.1306.12.77
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to kernel 6.1.167+, 6.6.130+, 6.12.77+, or 6.18.17+ (depending on which stable branch is in use)

  1. 1. Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. 2. Check if the running kernel version falls within any of the affected ranges: >= 4.15.1 and < 6.1.167, >= 6.2 and < 6.6.130, >= 6.7 and < 6.12.77, or >= 6.13 and < 6.18.17
  3. 3. If affected, schedule a maintenance window for kernel upgrade
  4. 4. Upgrade the Linux kernel to one of the fixed versions: 6.1.167 or later in the 6.1.y branch, 6.6.130 or later in the 6.6.y branch, 6.12.77 or later in the 6.12.y branch, or 6.18.17 or later in the 6.18.y branch
  5. 5. For distribution-based systems, apply the vendor-provided kernel security update that includes the fix (commit 56ade7ddea6ce605552341785d08e365c3f61861)
  6. 6. Reboot the system to load the patched kernel
  7. 7. Verify the fix by checking that the kernel version now includes the patch using `modinfo act_ife` or reviewing the kernel changelog
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require system reboot and could have compatibility implications with custom kernel modules or specific hardware drivers; ensure compatibility testing in non-production environment first

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-23378 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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