High [CVE-2026-53009] fix double-free of tx_buf skb
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-53009 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 Extended Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update Support Long-Life Add-On.
Aggregated and source-linked by VulniPulse. Data sources, validation and limitations.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ice: fix double-free of tx_buf skb If ice_tso() or ice_tx_csum() fail, the error path in ice_xmit_frame_ring() frees the skb, but the 'first' tx_buf still points to it and is marked as valid (ICE_TX_BUF_SKB). 'next_to_use' remains unchanged, so the potential problem will likely fix itself when the next packet is transmitted and the tx_buf gets overwritten.
But if there is no next packet and the interface is brought down instead, ice_clean_tx_ring() -> ice_unmap_and_free_tx_buf() will find the tx_buf and free the skb for the second time. The fix is to reset the tx_buf type to ICE_TX_BUF_EMPTY in the error path, so that ice_unmap_and_free_tx_buf().
Move the initialization of 'first' up, to ensure it's already valid in case we hit the linearization error path. The bug was spotted by AI while I had it looking for something else.
It also proposed an initial version of the patch. I reproduced the bug and tested the fix by adding code to inject failures, on a build with KASAN.
I looked for similar bugs in related Intel drivers and did not find any. A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ice network driver.
An error in the driver's handling of network packet transmission, specifically when ice_tso() or ice_tx_csum() functions fail, can lead to a double-free of a network buffer (skb).
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 21 days ago·verify at source
- kernel-0:6.12.0-211.37.1.el10_2
- kernel-0:6.12.0-55.105.1.el10_0
- kernel-rt-0:4.18.0-553.155.1.rt7.496.el8_10
- kernel-0:4.18.0-553.155.1.el8_10
- kernel-0:4.18.0-372.213.1.el8_6
- kernel-0:5.14.0-427.149.1.el9_4
- RHSA-2026:42919
- RHSA-2026:69089
- RHSA-2026:54247
- RHSA-2026:54246
- RHSA-2026:65711
- RHSA-2026:65712
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 21 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation checklist
- To mitigate this issue, prevent module ice from being loaded. Please see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for how to blacklist a kernel module to prevent it from loading automatically.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 21 days ago·verify at source
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