Skip to content
VulniPulse
High7.0Vendor: MediumRed Hat Linux

High [CVE-2026-63981] Fix blockcast recursion bypass leading to stack overflow

This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-63981 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat package: kernel.

CVE-2026-63981 Published Jul 19, 2026Updated by vendor Jul 19, 2026
Affected products & platforms
Red Hat LinuxLinux Kernel
Open vendor advisory

Android app · Google Play

Monitor future Red Hat Linux CVEs from your phone.

Choose a whole vendor or a precise platform, then receive matching security advisories by phone notification, email, or both. Coverage follows 32 official vendor sources and 160+ reviewed platform categories.

Matching phone alertsOptional email delivery

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: act_mirred: Fix blockcast recursion bypass leading to stack overflow tcf_mirred_act() checks sched_mirred_nest against MIRRED_NEST_LIMIT (4) to prevent deep recursion.

However, when the action uses blockcast (tcfm_blockid!= 0), the function returns at the tcf_blockcast() call BEFORE reaching the counter increment. As a result, the recursion counter never advances and the limit check is entirely bypassed.

When two devices share a TC egress block with a mirred blockcast rule, a packet egressing on device A is mirrored to device B via blockcast; device B's egress TC re-enters tcf_mirred_act() via blockcast and mirrors back to A, creating an unbounded recursion loop: tcf_mirred_act -> tcf_blockcast -> tcf_mirred_to_dev -> dev_queue_xmit -> sch_handle_egress -> tcf_classify -> tcf_mirred_act -> (repeat) This recursion continues until the kernel stack overflows.

The bug is reachable from an unprivileged user via unshare(CLONE_NEWUSER | CLONE_NEWNET): user namespaces grant CAP_NET_ADMIN in the new network namespace, which is sufficient to create dummy devices, attach clsact qdiscs with shared blocks, and install mirred blockcast filters.

Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat package: kernel.

Affected versions
  • < 7.0.0-rc7

Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 6 days ago·verify at source

Fixed versions

No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.

Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 6 days ago·verify at source

Mitigation

The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.

Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 6 days ago·verify at source

Discussion(0)

No comments yet. Share field notes, upgrade gotchas, or questions — verify against the vendor advisory before acting on community advice.

Sign in to join the discussion.